[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       NEAR TRAGEDY PREVENTED AT DENVER AIRPORT DURING SNOWSTORM

  (Mrs. SCHROEDER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks and to include 
therein extraneous material.)
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, Sunday night we had a terrible snowstorm 
in Denver. We really want to thank the crew of the United flight that 
prevented a terrible accident by aborting the landing that would have 
crashed into equipment that was, unfortunately, on the field. I am 
pleased to say that after notifying the FAA of my great concern about 
this, the FAA now has a team of experts on the ground at DIA. They have 
decertified the ground radar that did not work. Hopefully, we will get 
it fixed and that will never happen again.
  They are looking at the tiles that have fallen off the roof in the 
tower that were falling and allowing water to fall all over the 
equipment that the Air Traffic Controllers were trying to use. That is 
an outrage in a brandnew airport. Hopefully, that is going to get fixed 
right away.
  Finally, they are looking at the discrepancies between the flow 
control coming out of the regional center and what the tower said they 
could absorb.
  Mr. Speaker, there was a whole parade of mistakes. Thank goodness the 
FAA is there on the ground now trying to fix them, and we again thank 
the crew for making sure those mistakes did not end in a tragedy.
  Sunday night Denver experienced its second snow storm of the season. 
Denver International Airport weathered the first storm with flying 
colors. Unfortunately, the second storm caused serious problems.
  A United Boeing 727 nearly hit a city vehicle that accidently 
ventured onto an active runway. The pilot of that plane should be 
commended for his quick reaction. The FAA ground radar system that 
should have told air traffic controllers that there was a vehicle on 
the runway was operating, but not working.
  Airport operations had trouble removing the snow from the runways, 
creating a backlog of aircraft waiting to land. One plane got stuck on 
a taxiway. The regional air traffic control center kept the flow of 
aircraft higher than the Denver tower could handle.
  The Doppler radar and ground radar went out during the storm. Tiles 
from the ceiling of the newly built air traffic control tower fell to 
the ground. Water leaked all over the equipment and had to be vacuumed 
out.
  And today I find out that a tile fell last night and hit an air 
traffic controller on the head while she was managing air traffic. 
Fortunately she's OK. Clearly, we need improvements.
  The FAA has sent in a team of experts to DIA. They're on site, 
working hard to rectify this situation. They have decertified the 
ground radar, and are looking at the other systems as well.
  The city and the FAA must quickly work closely together so that we'll 
be able to make it through the many storms to come.

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