KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ice accumulation at Kansas City International Airport closed flight operations for approximately two and a half hours Saturday afternoon, delaying the chartered plane taking the Chiefs to Denver for tomorrow’s final game of the regular season.
The team finally departed the airport at 5:21 p.m. Players and club personnel remained on the plane as it idled on the tarmac for nearly four hours.
The team’s chartered flight was scheduled to depart Kansas City at 2 p.m. central time, and the plane pushed away from the terminal at approximately 1:15 p.m. The club attempted to move up the departure time but the charter plane’s late arrival nixed those plans. A mechanical issue also briefly delayed takeoff.
A rapid ice accumulation forced KCI to suspend flight operations at 2:50 p.m. before the plane could take off for Denver. The airport closed for more than two hours for deicing procedures and was scheduled to reopen at approximately 5:10 p.m., according to a social media post by City Manager Brian David Platt.
At one point Saturday evening, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed more than 4,000 users tracking the team’s flight, ranking it as the site’s No. 1 most tracked flight in the world.
The flight was scheduled to take 1 hour and 45 minutes, which would have the Chiefs arriving in Denver at approximately 5:55 p.m. Mountain time.
Kickoff between the Chiefs and Broncos is set for 3:25 p.m. central time Sunday, fewer than 22 hours after the team departed Kansas City.
