tonytales
14th Jul 2011, 22:03
A hail storm with golf ball s1zed pellets hit Denver's Airport at about 7:00 PM. It briefly grounding all flights, damaging jets and a ground surveillance radar used to track planes on runways and taxiways.
The sound in the concourse was incredible, it was like thousands of drums," reported one person. DIA has a stretched fabric tent type terminal.
About 1,500 travelers were forced to camp out in the terminal overnight after their flights were canceled, according to 7NEWS reporter Richard Ortner. Preliminary damage estimates to United jets was put at $4 million, Ortner said. United's Thursday and Friday flight schedules were snarled because of damage to 31 planes, which is 5 percent of the entire United fleet. Officials said that it will take up to 3 weeks to fix all the planes. 7NEWS reported that United had cancelled 24 outbound and 30 inbound flights on Thursday, and 37 more flights scheduled for Friday had been cancelled. United jets taken out of service as a result of storm damage will affect the entire United Airlines network, the company said Thursday. The airline is realigning their fleet nationwide, but there will still be cancellations for the next several days, officials said. United cancelled at least 126 flights nationwide Thursday with no indication of how long the service disruption would last. The airline has 2,395 flights every day across the nation. As a result of expected delays, United Airlines said that it would waive the normal $100 change fee for the next week on flights disrupted by grounded planes in Denver. Passengers were advised to contact their airlines to check on flights. Frontier airlines reported that three planes were damaged and out of service, and 12 flights will be cancelled every day until the planes can be fixed. The airline said that it expects the planes to be out of service for about 10 days. The airline had earlier reported that an Airbus A319, a Boeing 737-200 and two Boeing 737-300s suffered damage to the wing, flap and spoiler regions. Frontier said that it cancelled approximately 15 flights on Thursday because of the damage, which was estimated at $750,000. American Airlines reported damage to one plane. Airport crews towed 33 cars with missing windshields and other hail damage to an impound lot for safety, airport spokesman Steve Snyder said. In all, 83 cars in parking lots were damaged, plus a few police cars and maintenance vehicles, he said. Cameras at DIA showed heavy rain, hail and driving winds at the height of Wednesday's storm. A view of the taxiways showed shallow waves of rainwater and hail moving toward storm drains. "They held the planes on the ramp at the gate ... and the airlines pulled all their ramp workers in to get them out of the weather," airport spokesman Chuck Cannon said. Passengers said that they heard no announcements of tornado or storm warnings.
The sound in the concourse was incredible, it was like thousands of drums," reported one person. DIA has a stretched fabric tent type terminal.
About 1,500 travelers were forced to camp out in the terminal overnight after their flights were canceled, according to 7NEWS reporter Richard Ortner. Preliminary damage estimates to United jets was put at $4 million, Ortner said. United's Thursday and Friday flight schedules were snarled because of damage to 31 planes, which is 5 percent of the entire United fleet. Officials said that it will take up to 3 weeks to fix all the planes. 7NEWS reported that United had cancelled 24 outbound and 30 inbound flights on Thursday, and 37 more flights scheduled for Friday had been cancelled. United jets taken out of service as a result of storm damage will affect the entire United Airlines network, the company said Thursday. The airline is realigning their fleet nationwide, but there will still be cancellations for the next several days, officials said. United cancelled at least 126 flights nationwide Thursday with no indication of how long the service disruption would last. The airline has 2,395 flights every day across the nation. As a result of expected delays, United Airlines said that it would waive the normal $100 change fee for the next week on flights disrupted by grounded planes in Denver. Passengers were advised to contact their airlines to check on flights. Frontier airlines reported that three planes were damaged and out of service, and 12 flights will be cancelled every day until the planes can be fixed. The airline said that it expects the planes to be out of service for about 10 days. The airline had earlier reported that an Airbus A319, a Boeing 737-200 and two Boeing 737-300s suffered damage to the wing, flap and spoiler regions. Frontier said that it cancelled approximately 15 flights on Thursday because of the damage, which was estimated at $750,000. American Airlines reported damage to one plane. Airport crews towed 33 cars with missing windshields and other hail damage to an impound lot for safety, airport spokesman Steve Snyder said. In all, 83 cars in parking lots were damaged, plus a few police cars and maintenance vehicles, he said. Cameras at DIA showed heavy rain, hail and driving winds at the height of Wednesday's storm. A view of the taxiways showed shallow waves of rainwater and hail moving toward storm drains. "They held the planes on the ramp at the gate ... and the airlines pulled all their ramp workers in to get them out of the weather," airport spokesman Chuck Cannon said. Passengers said that they heard no announcements of tornado or storm warnings.