About 14 flights were delayed Monday morning after the lone running tram at Orlando International Airport went down — the third such incident in less than a week.
The airport says Monday's issue is a result of a sensitive new safety system and human error.
- Tram at Orlando airport was down from 10:10 a.m. to 11:03 a.m.
- It's the 3rd such incident in less than a week, officials said
- About 14 flights were impacted
The new trams were put in place by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America. Greater Orlando Aviation Authority says the new system has many complex alarms and safety features, and it does not take much to set off those alarms, requiring system checks by MHIA or its onsite subcontractors.
Phil Brown, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority CEO, said the issue Monday was caused by human error.
The tram connecting Airside 3 to the main terminal building went out of service from 10:10 a.m. to 11:03 a.m.
An incident also happened in the nine o'clock hour Monday morning where a subcontractor inadvertently hit into a junction box. That triggered an alarm for the outside doors in the station, shutting the system down for safety purposes.
American, United and Spirit Airlines were primarily affected. Passengers on the impacted flights received priority status to board their flights.
There were no passengers on the tram at the time, airport officials said.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority said it is working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and its subcontractors, who are responsible for the installing and operation of the tram system, to resolve the ongoing issues.
"We expect them to bring all resources to bear to address these issues," Brown said, "Including putting human resources in place, technical assistance in place. They are a global industry name and should be able to bring these to bear.
"We have told them that verbally," he continued. "This afternoon we sent them a letter notifying pursuant to our contract provisions, that we expect them to address not only the issues that our passengers have suffered for those that have met missed flights, but we expect them to salvage their reputation because we believe they are responsible for managing this effort."
Brown said the airport was putting together a claims system where passengers can submit claims for having missed flights, and they plan to work with Mitsubishi to address those claims.
Brown said 400 passengers have missed flights because of the tram breakdown over the last few days. He said no passengers missed their flights Monday because of the tram issues.
"I'm apologizing that they have suffered this," Brown said. "This is not what we want to present for Orlando International Airport."
Brown said they will see what passenger concerns they can address, though they may not be address everything.
The tram was shut down for about three hours on April 19, impacting thousands of travelers and delaying several flights.
"It kinda shocked me and I didn't see it coming," said Andre Alan. He works for a private passenger service at the airport. He pushes wheelchairs to gates and helps people get on their flights on time.
But with the tram service breaking down he had a hectic day at work. "I thought I was going one way and then I had to go another way. Go downstairs, go over there, to go over here. I am like, oh geez, it's crazy," said Alan.
There was another outage on Sunday that lasted about an hour. More than 50 passengers missed their flights.
Airport officials said the walkway between Airside 3 and the main terminal building was opened. Buses were also put into operation to transport travelers.
Alan says he hopes this detour doesn't happen again but he's advising travelers to come to the airport with ample time.
"Come here early every single time. Just come here early, just in case anything happens,” Alan said. “Because right now they're doing refurbishing… So just come here early just in case."