A malfunctioning visibility sensor at Durango-La Plata County Airport left hundreds of travelers stranded Thursday as arriving flights and the corresponding return flights were canceled.
At 9:40 p.m., the visibility sensor was finally up and running.
“It will take about 15 minutes to calibrate and spool up,” said Tony Vicari from the airport’s operating division, “then it will start emitting data. United said if it was up and running by 10 p.m., the flight would come.”
Vicari gave United the good news, and said the airline was checking with dispatch and its people at the gate.
“It will be a little late, because they haven’t even boarded yet,” he said, “but they’re planning to come. We’ll finally be receiving our first commercial flight of the day.”
Airline pilots refuse to take off or land without the visibility data.
If the equipment had not been repaired in time, and that flight were canceled, it would also have meant the cancellation of the first flight out (this) morning, because there wouldn’t be an aircraft on the ground here, he said.
“If that plane doesn’t make it, that will be close to 1,000 people affected by this,” Vicari said earlier in the evening. “This just goes to show how important air service is. It cripples transportation into our community when it goes down.”
A flight from Durango to Denver departed at 7:50 a.m. Thursday, but four arriving flights were canceled from Denver, Dallas and Phoenix, Vicari said. The return flights were canceled, too.
Among the early frustrated fliers were two coaches and 14 members of the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team. They were scheduled to fly to Dallas.
“Enterprise scrambled to find us two vans, so we’re going to drive to Albuquerque and fly from there,” coach Jason Flores said from the airport just before noon.
The Skyhawks are scheduled to meet the University of Dallas tomorrow and St. Edwards University in Austin on Saturday.
The problem started Wednesday.
A crew from the weather service, which maintains equipment at the airport, was working on the visibility sensor Wednesday afternoon, Vicari said. He’s filling in for Kip Turner, director of aviation, who is out of town on airport business.
“They finished at 1 p.m.,” Vicari said. “At 7 p.m., the sensor failed.”
A new sensor was sent overnight from Kansas City to the National Weather Service Office in Grand Junction. The part was dispatched from Grand Junction at 10 a.m. today, he said. It was while the weather service crew was installing the new sensor that other problems were discovered that extended the repairs needed.
The crew eventually had to go over to the Cortez Municipal Airport to get needed parts, returning at about 8:30 p.m.
Seven arriving flights and seven departing flights were canceled early, Vicari said. The unexpected difficulties the National Weather Service team encountered also led to the cancelation of the 6:30 and 8 p.m. flights from Denver.
Equipment maintenance was the cause of three-hour flight delays at the airport a year ago.
On that occasion, a mix-up in communications between airport officials and weather service technicians required flights to be delayed until maintenance of the automated weather-monitoring system could be performed.
At that time, the airport had no one certified to take weather observations when the automated system is out of service.
“A large number of our firefighters out here actually chose to become certified weather observers after that, and they all went through the training,” Vicari said. “We always have at least one observer on shift, but they can’t legally be used until we get a site certification.”
The stumbling block has been that since the firefighters started their training, the site-certification process was transferred from the National Weather Service to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the FAA hasn’t been able to implement the process yet.
“Maybe this will be a good example for why they should get it going,” Vicari said. “We’re vulnerable because we’re at the mercy of automated equipment, and the nearest service is in Grand Junction.”
daler@durangoherald.com
