Spokane International Airport: Denver Bound Plane Slides Off Runway, Hits Snowbank [Breaking]
A United Airlines plane that was departing from an airport in Washington state and headed for Denver slid off the runway during its departure Tuesday morning and hit a snowbank, leading to a shutdown of Spokane International Airport. No injuries were reported.
Fox News reported that Mike Kennaugh, a passenger on the plane, said that United flight 812 “took a weird turn, then was bumpy” before it could take off for Denver
“Most people probably didn’t know what was happening,” he said.
Mashable reported that Karen May, spokesperson for United Airlines told them, “The aircraft was on a taxiway when it hit some slippery conditions that caused the nose wheel to flip off.”
The Airport is temporarily closed while we take measures to assure adequate braking conditions have been established.
— Spokane International Airport (GEG) (@iflyspokane) January 5, 2016
Flight 812 was scheduled to depart the Spokane airport around 5:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday when the incident occurred, according to United’s website. The plane was a 737, and crews were working to get the plane back on the runway. Passengers were taken off the plane by airport staff.
Here's a video of those passengers from the @united flight getting offloaded @iflyspokane pic.twitter.com/WSdHUevAAY
— Casey Lund (@casey_g_lund) January 5, 2016
It was not clear if weather played any role in the incident. The National Weather Service reported sub-freezing temperatures and mostly cloudy skies in Spokane on Tuesday morning.
CNN reported that Spokane International Airport, located near the Idaho border some 250 miles from Seattle, is the second-largest airport in Washington state.
According to its website, some three million passengers flying on six airlines and 64,000 tons of cargo pass through Spokane International Airport each year. Spokane Airports is jointly owned by Spokane County and the City of Spokane.
