Why the Chiefs’ flight to Denver was delayed 4 hours. It wasn’t just the ice
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The Chiefs landed in Denver late Saturday — or much later than they had planned anyway.
Their charter plane for this weekend’s Broncos game endured nearly a four-hour weather delay in Kansas City.
Kansas City International Airport halted its flight operations Saturday afternoon because of icy conditions on its runway and taxiways.
That left the Chiefs sitting aboard their plane for nearly four hours waiting to depart. The plane eventually left KC for Denver at 5:20 p.m. Saturday and landed about 1 1/2 hours later.
The team attempted to leave earlier in the day, moving up its departure time in hopes of beating the winter storm. But mechanical issues with the charter plane prevented an earlier takeoff. Those issues pushed them back to their typical afternoon departure window — until icy conditions intervened and only pushed it back farther.
KCI suspended operations for what amounted to 2 1/2 hours.
The Chiefs-Broncos game is scheduled for Sunday at 3:25 p.m. Central Time at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
The Chiefs have already locked up the No. 1 seed in the AFC, prompting them to sit starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but the Broncos need to beat the Chiefs to ensure they will make the playoffs.
Much of the Chiefs’ playoff path was resting on the outcome of Saturday’s two NFL games.
The league’s last cancellation of a game occurred in Week 17 of the 2022 season, by the way. The Bills-Bengals game was called off following a severe injury to Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin.
This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 4:40 PM.