Earthquake cancels flights to Salt Lake Airport
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - “We boarded the flight and as soon as we got ready to sit down, they told us there was an earthquake in Salt Lake and the airport shut down,” said canceled flight passenger Tami Bolender.
Canceled flights to Salt Lake this morning left passengers like Bolender, who was heading off to a week in Cancun with her family, to take an alternate route.
Along with the canceled departures, 4 flights that were headed to Salt Lake diverted into Idaho Falls, around 150 passengers found themself back at the ticket counter looking for a way out.
“Delta Airlines has been gracious enough to put us on a United flight going out tomorrow,” Bolender said.
The 5.7 magnitude quake caused flights to and from the Salt Lake Airport to suspend operations temporarily. Viewers reported water coming into the airport this morning, one of the many issues that would need to be fixed before the airport is able to operate again.
“Any kind of incident like that requires a pretty in depth investigation of what's going on at the airport, the investigation of all the runways taxiways. So all those things would take time, just to make sure everything safe,” said Idaho Falls Regional Airport director, Rick Cloutier.
Coronavirus concerns around the world has left many flights with much less than full capacity, Cloutier says this made the diversions much more manageable.
Those hoping to fly out included BYU-Idaho students like Colin Merling who was heading back home to Georgia since BYU-Idaho transitioned their classes online for the remainder of the semester.
Despite the challenges, Merling says the passengers and staff kept a positive attitude.
“So far, everyone has managed to maintain a really positive outlook, which I think is what's most important. Even though challenges have come up most people are in the problem solving mode. I heard some talking about how they're just gonna wait and see what happens. Some people are just going home to take a nap and then they'll see what happens in a day or two,” Merling said.
The Salt Lake City Airport is currently backed up due to the delay, they expect flights to start moving again around 6 p.m., according to Cloutier.
