Snowstorm grounds thousands of travelers

RENO, Nev. – Thousands of passengers were grounded Saturday during a snowstorm at Reno-Tahoe International Airport on its busiest weekend of the year.

At nearby Lake Tahoe and elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada, the storm dumped as much as 18 inches of snow and delayed thousands of Thanksgiving holiday motorists heading over mountain passes.

Sixty-nine flights at the airport were canceled or delayed during a seven-hour period Saturday after a malfunction in equipment used to guide pilots when visibility is poor, spokesman Brian Kulpin said.

The instrument landing system is maintained and operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which fixed the problem after the storm had left as much as 6 inches of snow in Reno.

Travelers were urged to contact their airlines before heading to the airport because delays were expected to continue. Kulpin said some passengers might not be able to get a flight from Reno until Tuesday because flights are booked solid today and Monday.

“This has such a ripple effect throughout the system,” Kulpin said. “It has impacts on other airports, because there are people stranded at other airports.”

The Sunday after Thanksgiving traditionally is the airport’s busiest day of the year, with about 10,000 passengers using the facility.

Kulpin said airport officials were livid, because it was the second time this month the instrument landing system malfunctioned during a storm.

“This is an awful way to treat the flying public, and it’s all because of the FAA,” he said.

FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer in Seattle said a combination of bad weather and equipment failure caused the FAA to suspend flights in and out of the airport.

The cause of the equipment failure is under investigation, but it appears a heavy buildup of snow on an antenna contributed to it, he said. The storm restricted departures by causing planes to have to undergo deicing, he said.