NewsLocal News

Actions

KCI airfield lights temporarily not operational, flights diverted

Ballot Breakdown: KCI terminal question
Posted at 7:49 PM, Dec 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-19 13:39:00-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Airfield lights at Kansas City International Airport weren't operational for about 20 minutes Tuesday night.

Some flights were delayed or diverted.

KCI spokesman Joe McBride said Wednesday that a computer hardware failure caused the 20-minute outage. The lights were back on by 7:40 p.m. Tuesday.

Though the airport has backup generators, they would not have made a difference, McBride said.

The airport was aware of two flights that were diverted because of the outage, McBride said.

Olivia Althoff told 41 Action News she was on a Southwest flight from Orlando scheduled to land at KCI at 5:30 p.m. At about 5:45 p.m., she said passengers were told that all runway lights weren't operational and they were being diverted to Topeka to refuel.

Althoff's flight made it to KCI shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"It was a lot but I appreciate how calm everyone was on the flight. We made friends with everyone on the flight and waited," Athoff said. "A lot of people had to get off the plane and one of the persons who had to get off didn't report their name to the pilot. So our flight was delayed even more because we had to do roll call on the flight."