SEATAC, Wash. — Maintenance issues impacted SEA Airport's train system Wednesday night, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at their gates.
"I saw a lot of people doing their best to survive,” said Nancy Staltman. “But I did not see SEA Airport come through and do better than they should, and they were really unprepared for this."
In less than 24 hours, more than 4,000 travelers were stuck at their gates. "I could see elderly people struggling, standing in line,” said Staltman. I could see many small children who were really struggling with the late hours... and a lot of patient people."
Two of the three airport train lines stopped running around 8 p.m. due to a computer failure.
"Unfortunately, we're just like any other system; we are not totally perfect, and we got contingency plans," said Perry Cooper, a spokesperson with SEA Airport.
The airport's plan was to get people out onto the tarmac and shuttle them by bus to the main terminal. Officials said they had pathfinders, police officers, and airline staff to help guide travelers through the process.
"It's not what you're hoping to expect at all times,” said Cooper. “You can't just snap your fingers and make it happen right away. It does take some time to spool up and get those things going. So, we really appreciate everyone's patience for that."
Despite the appreciation, Staltman doesn't appreciate the situation the airport put her family and others in and hopes it learns from this incident.
"I was really floored at the lack of communication,” said Staltman. “I was really thankful that all the hundreds of people stranded with me stayed calm because it could've been a bad scene.”
The last major upgrade to the train system was about 25 years ago. Officials said their crews are in the early stages of another major system improvement, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
On average, SEA officials said these system issues are resolved within minutes. The incident Wednesday night took about two hours because crews had to reboot the computer system.