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SOFTWARE FAILURE
What Happened?
The designers of the Denver
International Airport had big plans
to automate the handling of luggage.
With as much as a mile to cover
between the airport gates and termi-
nals, the hope was to develop a sys-
tem that whisked your luggage from
the check-in counter to the departing
plane and from an arriving plane
to baggage collection with minimal
human intervention. They thought
the system would result in fewer
flight delays, less waiting at luggage
carousels, and reduced labor costs.
The system was designed and cre-
ated in the late 1980s and early
1990s. Approximately 26 miles of
track were constructed to move
bags up and down inclines in gray carts under the control of a central computer.
However, the planned March 1994 opening of the airport was delayed continu-
ously due to failures in the baggage system. During tests, bags were misloaded
and misrouted. They fell out of carts when making turns. The system loaded bags
into carts that already were full and unloaded them onto belts already jammed
with luggage. Bags were damaged by being wedged under carts and dropped onto
concrete floors.
The airport finally opened for business in February of 1995. At that point, only
one airline—United—agreed to use the automated system. This was a stripped-
down version of the system, used only for outgoing flights. No other airline used
the system at all. They opted for humans driving luggage carts, just as most air-
ports do today. United finally gave up using the system in 2005.
The original cost of the system was $186 million. The delays cost $1 million a
day, surpassing the original costs. When United opted to abandon the system in
2005, it did so despite having a lease on the system through 2025 at $60 million
per year.
The automated
baggage-handling
system in Denver
resulted in lost lug-
gage and mangled
packages.
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