Salt Lake City airport temporarily closed due to icy runways
Measurable freezing rain was reported at Salt Lake City's airport for only the 10th time since 1940, resulting in a three-hour closure. Icy conditions in the metro area caused 188 auto accidents.
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City International Airport has reopened all three of its runways after being partially closed for most of the day because of freezing rain and icy conditions that caused a Frontier Airlines plane to slide on the runway during landing.
Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann says the third runway opened early Thursday evening. The first runway opened at about 12:45 p.m. and the second one mid-afternoon. The airport was completely shut down for about three hours.
The Frontier plane landed safely at about 9:30 a.m. and slid on a patch of ice while turning to the taxiway. None of the 139 passengers on the flight from Denver were injured and the airplane never left the pavement.
Morning commutes were brought to a crawl by the icy conditions, which caused dozens of accidents that closed roadways. Utah Highway Patrol called in off-duty officers to deal with all the accidents.
In downtown Salt Lake City and at the University of Utah, people walked gingerly to avoid falling on the ice. At the university, a frozen pipe burst in the library forcing a 45-minute evacuation, university spokesman Keith Sterling said. The pipe burst in an employee staff area, causing carpet damage. No books were damaged, he said.
Freezing rain is uncommon in Salt Lake City. Thursday marked just the 10th time there's been measurable frozen rain at the airport since 1940, said Monica Traphagan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Salt Lake City.
The amount of freezing rain at the airport is the most since Dec. 31, 1983, Traphagan said. The effect is caused by precipitation that begins as rain in the warmer upper atmosphere but freezes when it hits the valley floor that is below freezing, she said. The inversion effect — which causes the Salt Lake City metro area to have some of the country's unhealthiest air during the winter — keeps cold air trapped in the valley.
At the airport — a hub for Delta Airlines — five flights were cancelled Thursday morning, and 15 other planes were forced to return to their gates when the runway was closed, said airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann.
It's unknown how many airlines have been affected. Delta Airlines and seven other airlines run flights there. The airport is located five miles northwest of downtown Salt Lake City. The airport has two terminals, five concourses and 83 gates.
There were 188 vehicle crashes reported in the Salt Lake City metro area Thursday, said Cpt. Todd Johnson of the Utah Highway Patrol. Nine of those were slide-offs.
"That's an enormous amount of crashes to be investigating," Johnson said.
Twenty-seven people were hurt — including three highway troopers — but none suffered major injuries. The freezing rain conditions are very rare in northern Utah, Johnson said.
"In my 22 years on the road, I can't remember anything like this," he said.
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