Blizzard closes Denver airport, 1,200 flights cancelled
denver — A blizzard shut down Denver International Airport on Wednesday, cancelling 1,200 flights and stranding travellers after the storm briefly knocked out power and made takeoffs and landings unsafe, airport officials said.
The storm, which hit Denver early on Wednesday, caused ripple effects across the country as planes awaited clearance to depart for snowbound Denver.
“We’ve got blowing snow out there, wet snow on the ground, icy conditions, low visibility, so we’re fighting all those things,” Denver airport spokesman Heath Montgomery said.
Montgomery said it marked the first time the airport had been forced to shut down due to heavy weather since 2006, when Denver was blanketed with several feet of snow.
The closure came one day after a suspicious package was found at the airport’s main terminal, prompting a brief evacuation amid heightened security in response to deadly suicide bombings in Brussels.
Montgomery said officials could not yet say when the airport would reopen, although forecasters expected the storm to let up later in the afternoon.
A main roadway to the airport was impassable, stranding passengers in terminals. A power outage at about 5:20am shut down many of the airport’s systems for about an hour, Montgomery said, preventing crews from fueling and de-icing aircraft. A total of 626 departing and 579 arriving flights had been canceled by about 1pm, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com. —