Passengers, power surge blamed for tram woes

Diana Sahagun

Monday, Dec. 11, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

Overaggressive passengers and a power surge are to blame for the weekend chaos unleashed at McCarran International Airport, officials say.

The two trams that connect the D gates to the airport terminal were out of service for about two hours Friday, believed to have started when passengers jammed and ultimately broke a tram door, shutting the vehicle down. An attempt by airport officials to shift to manual gear failed, and a power surge shorted out the fuse box to both trams.

In the aftermath, thousands of people were stuck 1.5 miles apart, unable to get quickly to their waiting planes or to get from their planes to claim luggage at the main terminal. Instead, the passengers waited patiently while the backup plan began, which was to shuttle people by 12 buses -- each seating 100 -- between the main terminal and the D gates.

Luckily, most people made their flights because airlines at the D gates -- Delta, United and National -- were aware of the problem and held flights until the trams were up and running, Hilarie Grey, public affairs manager for McCarran, said.

Airport personnel will meet today to discuss how the backup was implemented and how the system can be run quicker, Grey said.

"This was a freaky, catastrophic event that we didn't expect," she said.

Buses were up and running about 10 minutes after the trams went down, but thousands of people were still bunched up on both sides of the airport, slowly making their way through the security gates.

Future changes to the airport will include a tram system from Terminal 3, which will allow passengers to ride to the D gates.

Grey said officials will address how to deal with the domino effect caused as luggage from passengers who hadn't yet made it to the main terminal began to back up, outnumbering the people in the baggage claim area.

"That might be an issue we talk to airlines about when luggage is coming in -- where do they keep it, do they move it into their offices right away?" she said.

Mary Ellen Retzer, who was on her way to San Jose, Calif., to connect to Philadelphia, was furious that a busing system was the best solution that could be offered.

"This is baloney," she said. "You tell me they couldn't have planned any better than this? They should have had a better backup plan, it's going to take us forever to get to a bus."

But Grey said for now, buses are the only way to get people to and from the D gates if the trams are down.

"If you look at the way the D concourse is set up, it doesn't lend itself to walking," she said of the 1.5-mile distance between the gates and the terminal. "We can get buses online quickly, and hopefully we will never have a delay like we had on Friday again."

While airport administrators formed two lines to get passengers through the security gates, tensions flared as people started fighting over which line was moving faster.

But for the most part, passengers, many of them headed to or from the National Finals Rodeo, which ended Sunday, seemed relaxed, chatting furiously on their cell phones as they waited for the lines to move.

Amy Bricker, flying Delta on her way to Florida, quietly waited in line, laughing that it was only the second time she had flown and she was already faced with a delay.

"This won't deter me from flying again, but it sure is a nightmare," she said. "I have two children to get home to, and we think we're going to miss our flights and our luggage."

Decked out in cowboy gear, Amy James, of Wichita, Kan., made her way to the airport terminal after 30 minutes stuck at the D gates and dismissed the inconvenience. In town for the weekend for the rodeo, she was just happy to land safely.

"It was quite a shock to see a million people standing in line," she said, "but they seemed to have it under control."