15 May 2025

Denver Airport Loses Communications with Pilots for 6 Minutes

by Bonnie | | 0

Denver International Airport suffered a 6 minute outage of communications between air traffic controllers and 15 to 20 pilots due to multiple radio transmitter failures.

The problem hit the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center in Longmont, Colorado. One of 22 such centers in the USA, it serves a region that spreads into nine states: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Four radio frequencies used by the Longmont center were out of service, leaving a backup fifth frequency for air traffic controllers to use for communication with pilots. Then the fifth frequency failed, too.

One of the air traffic controllers eventually reached one pilot on a guard line normally reserved for use when a pilot is in distress. The pilot contacted the other aircraft and told them to change frequencies to re-establish communication.

David Riley, former head of the local air traffic controllers union and now retired, told Denver 7, “It’s one thing to lose track of one airplane because you can’t communicate with them, but to lose track of all of the airplanes that you had communication with… And from my understanding, in this situation, they still had radar coverage, but that’s like watching a car crash happen and not be able to do anything about it.”

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