ORLANDO, Fla. – A tram carrying airline passengers to their gates at Orlando International Airport malfunctioned Monday, the fifth outage plaguing the transportation system in recent weeks.
The outage affected service to Gates 30-59, mostly passengers of Continental, Spirit and United airlines.
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It's not immediately known if passengers were aboard the tram when it stopped working, but there were no reports of passengers missing flights, airport officials said.
Some passengers were bused and others walked from the ticketing area to the gates, officials said.
An apparent electrical issue caused the delay, which lasted about 40 minutes, officials said.
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority apologized last week for the ongoing problem, which it blames on mechanical issues.
"GOAA continues to work with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and its contractors, who are responsible for the installation and operation of the tram system, to resolve ongoing issues," OIA said in a statement last week.
The airport is in the midst of a $3 billion construction project and an airport representative said there will be some "bumps in the road" while work is being done, but the exact cause of Monday's outage is not known.
GOAA board chairman Frank Kruppenbacher said he personally called Mitsubishi and said, "They better get everybody here and their uncle to get this fixed or rectified."
He asked his staff to draft a letter to Mitsubishi asking that the company reimburse customers and airlines who have suffered losses because of the problems.
Kruppenbacher told News 6 that the problems stem from safety sensors being triggered for false alarms.
"A cable hit one of the sensors, and if a sensor goes off, the whole train shuts down," he said last week. "While I appreciate safety, they have to fix them from going off in a false-type mode."