Fire In Portland Grounds Horizon Flights
Kay McManus of Poulsbo, Wash., buried her nose in a book at the Spokane International Airport on Wednesday and wondered when her flight would leave.
Originally scheduled for 11:20 a.m., McManus’ flight to Kalispell, Mont., was delayed because of a small fire in the basement of a Portland building that houses US West’s central office.
The fire disrupted phone lines for 60,000 Portland customers, including Horizon Airlines. Horizon lost telephone connections to its dispatch center at Portland International Airport, grounding flights throughout the Northwest.
“We operate 600 flights in a day and most of them haven’t been operating,” said Horizon spokesman Dan Russo at 4 p.m. Wednesday. By then, some communications had been re-established via cellular phones, putting some flights back in the air. Russo didn’t know when complete service would be restored.
At the Spokane airport, 70 Horizon flights come and go daily, said Todd Woodard, spokesman for the airport. Sixteen flights were canceled and several others were delayed before service gradually was restored. Many passengers were re-routed on other airlines.
Some passengers, like McManus, wondered why Horizon didn’t have a back-up plan in place in case of such an emergency.
“It’s amazing to me that they hadn’t thought that if they have a problem, they have an alternate way to schedule their flights,” McManus said.
The fire, which began about 8:45 a.m., was out by 10 a.m., but damaged several phone cables, said Neil Heesacker, a spokesman for the Portland Fire Bureau.
In Spokane, passengers slumped in chairs around the C concourse, which services most Horizon flights.
Randi Triem of Helena had hoped to catch a 11:55 a.m. flight home after a business trip. She was supposed to be at work by 3 p.m.
It’s annoying, but not a big problem, said Jim Schueler of Walla Walla, headed to Billings to visit family. “I’m on vacation. It’s a good time to sit around, cool my heels and read a book.”
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