Here's a view of just how well we can expect people to rise to the occasion and handle possible y2k glitches. Imagine if the "glitch" were wider spread and longer than a couple of hours. I am more concerned about mass reactions to problems than I am about the potential glitches themselves.
If you are in an urban setting consider how quickly things can go downhill once systemic "irregularities" suggest to the socially marginal among us that traditional responses to deviant behavior may be slow in coming, if it comes at all.
Anyway, here's how well people handled it at DIA yesterday when a small mechcanical problem disrupted their day. Notice also that this resulted in a major security problem.
Loose axle derails DIA
By Jason Blevins
Denver Post Staff Writer
April 27 - A dangling axle on a train at Denver International Airport forced a complete
shutdown of the airport's sole transportation system Sunday, leaving dozens of passengers
panicking on train cars in the darkened tunnels.
The shutdown lasted several hours and affected thousands of passengers, many of whom
missed their connections.
Tempers flared, with many passengers lashing out at both the airport and the city over the
latest in a series of problems over the past six months.
One passenger called the incident a "massive screwup.''
"It was almost riotous conditions,'' said traveler Owen Lopez, who was hoping to get home
to New Mexico after missing his morning flight to Albuquerque. "It's insane. It's just
another reason this airport is beyond stupid for all of us who ever have to fly in and out of it.
You'd think they'd have this figured out by now.''
"This will definitely be a matter that will be reviewed by the transition team,'' said Stephanie
Foote, Mayor Wellington Webb's chief of staff.
"In terms of evaluating the problem, we will have to work with the operator of the train
system,'' said Foote, one of four members of the DIA transition team named last week
following the resignation of DIA Manager Jim DeLong.
What airport officials called a major mechanical malfunction occurred around 9:30 a.m.,
when a dangling axle on the train traveling from Concourse B to Concourse C damaged a
series of control lines on the track between all the concourses. The train came to a stop
between concourses B and C.
"We really had two problems at once,'' said DeLong. "The train was down between B and C,
and there was significant damage en route to that location caused by the drooping axle.''
DeLong added that DIA's trains are the second newest system operated by A-Trans, which
he said builds and maintains more than 20 train systems across the country.
Power was restored to the section of track between concourses A and B by 12:45 p.m., but
not before thousands of travelers were backed up in all the concourses.
Disembarking travelers walked from the Main Terminal over the pedestrian bridge to
Concourse A, where about 30 employee shuttle buses ferried them to the other two
concourses.
Thousands of arriving passengers in concourses B and C waited for the buses to take them
to Concourse A, where they had to walk to the Main Terminal and the baggage carousels.
The 3- to 4-hour wait in the lines was described as chaotic, dangerous and poorly managed
by those who endured the sweltering, cramped delay.
At one point, Concourse C was evacuated because airport officials thought there was a
possibility that some unscreened passengers had made it onto the buses that carried them to
the concourse.
"As a precaution, we resterilized Concourse C,'' said DIA spokesman Chuck Cannon.
Airport security took the several hundred passengers in the concourse down to buses and
drove them to Gate C-50, where security screening equipment was available for securing
baggage.
"We did that totally as a precaution,'' Cannon said.
"We don't know that anyone made it onto the concourse without security screening.''
The malfunction began as a loaded train approached Concourse C. It stopped mid-tunnel. A
voice over the loudspeaker told the standing-
room-only capacity train that there would be a short delay and passengers should not
attempt to leave the train. After more than 30 minutes in the stifling cabin, some of the
passengers began to panic.
"This lady just started freaking out, so someone propped open the door and then the power
went out,'' leaving all the passengers in complete darkness, said Jorge Lozada, who was
trying to catch a flight to Miami.
Lozada said that after waiting in the train for 30 minutes, he and some of the passengers on
the train jumped out and walked on "very tiny sidewalks'' and tried all the emergency-exit
doors in the tunnel.
"They were all locked,'' he said. Airport officials were watching the stranded passengers on
video surveillance the whole time and cut the power the moment the train doors were forced
open.
"There's a live wire out there, just like a third rail on a subway,'' said Cannon. "If somebody
had stepped on that they would have been killed instantly.''
Police arrived a half-hour later and escorted everyone through a baggage corridor and onto
Concourse B, where they were bused to Concourse C, but not without an even longer wait.
Thousands of frustrated travelers agreed, blaming anyone and anything from airlines or the
airport to the city of Denver.
"It's another example of this city's absolute lack of planning,'' said Denverite Roger Wilson,
waiting for a midday flight to Washington. "It's pretty ridiculous. I can't even get to the
damn concourse. You'd think they would have figured this out by now.''
Cannon said the backup plan that utilizes buses in the event of a train malfunction worked
fine; it just was not as efficient as the trains. "Well, I can probably understand that kind of
reaction because they are used to getting on the train and getting out to Concourse C in only
4 minutes. It may not have been as good as running trains, but it does move people,'' he said.
"There is a certain delay built in. You have to evaluate everything, . . . and it still takes a
certain amount of time to get mobilized.''
This was the second time in about two months DIA passengers found themselves trapped at
the mercy of a computerized interconcourse train system on the blink.
Thousands of travelers found themselves stuck at the airport Feb. 17 when a software glitch
caused the train system to run on limited operation for almost 2 hours. Last week, a United
Airlines security lapse led to the evacuation of the airport's Concourse B, disrupting about
60 flights. In October, thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport when a blizzard
shut down Pena Boulevard, DIA's main access road.
Tempers flared Sunday as United Airlines representatives informed the waiting passengers
that the airline was not delaying flights and advising changes in travel plans. United, the
airport's largest carrier, said about 30 percent of its flights and an estimated 5,000
passengers were affected.
"We owe it to our passengers throughout the system to operate on time across the system,''
said Richard Martin, a United Airlines spokesman. "So basically we had the ability to get the
flights off on time, and we did.''
Federal Aviation Administration headquarters in Seattle reported no delays, or "ripple
effects,'' stemming from the incident at DIA. But few travelers Sunday were comforted by
the fact that flights were leaving on time.
"Where do they expect us to go?'' asked Michele Spreen, who had been standing in "too
many lines'' for more than 4 hours in an effort to get to Dallas. "You would think they would
have a better disaster-recovery plan,'' she said.
At one point, Denver police stationed at the airport requested backup from the department's
metro division. The extra officers took over the airport's security-
screening operation, freeing up airport police to patrol the concourses, department
spokeswoman Detective Virginia Lopez said.
She said early reports of fights breaking out among frustrated travelers were false.
As the temperature rose, the unorganized mess was soon filled with the sounds of babies
crying and adults voicing their frustrations at an intercom message, which hours after the
trains had broken down was still giving train-boarding instructions.
Calling the incident at DIA a "worst-case scenario,'' Cannon expressed embarrassment over
the delays and missed flights in a report aired on KUSA 9News. "This is the largest and
most severe problem that DIA has experienced since it opened.''
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
