As of 6 p.m. Sunday, 619 flights had been delayed and seven had been canceled, according to . The delays were split nearly evenly, affecting 332 flights departing the Denver airport and 287 flights arriving, according to FlightAware.

Colorado weather: Landspout tornadoes spotted on Eastern Plains amid severe thunderstorm watch

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a weather-based departure delay at DIA shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, which was lifted by 3:30 p.m., . No traffic management programs were in place at 6 p.m. Sunday.

Southwest delayed 216 flights in and out of Denver on Sunday, followed by 202 from United, 104 from SkyWest, 46 from Frontier, 17 from American Airlines and 11 from Delta, according to FlightAware. Nine other airlines delayed between one and five flights, and United canceled all seven flights.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Family and friends of the 11 jumpers and pilot killed when their shortly after taking off in Missouri on Sunday said they loved their hobby — whether it was to find personal peace or to share a once-in-a-lifetime experience with others. They remembered the as people who may have had regular jobs to pay their bills but free falling brought both the thrill and the serenity they craved.

The coroner in Bent County, Missouri, this week . Among them was Jennifer L. Sharp, of Grand Junction.

Sharp, 55, took her first jump in 1989 when she was 18. Some 6,800 jumps later, she was a legendary instructor at the highest levels of the sport and the coach for 25-year-old Blake Thacker’s certification that weekend.

On her blog, Sharp wrote about how she jumped into Denver’s Coors Field ballpark while dressed as the queen of England and loved to go tandem with people skydiving for the first time and to see them test their resolve, grow personally and just feel alive.

“Being trained by Jen Sharp was like taking piano lessons from Beethoven,” her friend Greg Upper told The Associated Press, calling Sharp a philosopher. “That¶¶Òőap how big of a deal she was.”

Plane crashed shortly after takeoff

The plane was barely off the ground Sunday — only about 100 feet in the air — when it made an abrupt left turn before crashing on a sunny day. It appeared to be losing power, witnesses said.

Skydive Kansas City operated the single-engine turboprop Pacific Aerospace 750XL built in 2010 out of an airport in the small town of Butler, roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.

The plane arrived in Butler for the first time on June 5, according to data from FlightRadar24.com. Pictures of the aircraft posted on social media showed it still had advertising from Chattanooga Skydiving Co. Its flight history showed it had previously been flying for weeks at a time in Tennessee and Wisconsin.

A woman who answered the phone at the Chattanooga Skydiving Co. hung up Tuesday when a reporter identified himself.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating leading to the crash including how much experience the pilot had with this model of plane and any mechanical or structural problems with the aircraft.

The 12 people killed were identified as Sharp, Thacker, Kurt John Roy, Michael Shanahan, David Hershberger, Sai Karthik Varma Datla, Matthew Swope, Dustin McKinney, Marcus Miller, Nicholas Nash, William Fischer and Dane Cordes, according to the Bates County Coroner’s Office.

Skydiving helped one jumper get sober

McKinney’s wife said her husband was meticulous about safety when he jumped after his love for skydiving prompted him to get sober seven years ago.

“It feels like this is the only way that skydiving could have taken out Dustin, because it was such a freak accident,” Kathryn Nold said. “It was the most horrific thing. It¶¶Òőap still very surreal.”

McKinney, 44, of Stilwell, Kansas, worked at a furniture store and played drums in Kansas City-area bands. The father of two also had a part-time paying gig as a videographer for Skydive Kansas City.

“He could just immediately make people feel seen and warm and want to be around him, and I just feel infinitely lucky that we were the center of his world and able to experience that love from him that he gave so effortlessly to everyone,” Nold said of her high school sweetheart.

Honoring his sister by jumping

Shanahan, 54, of Kansas City, took up skydiving just before his older sister Nikki died from breast cancer in 2016, his mother said Tuesday.

“He wanted to live his life and make it worth having fun, having a good time, doing something he enjoyed, and skydiving was something he had always wanted to do, unbeknownst to us,” Gloria Shanahan told The Associated Press.

Shanahan honored his sister by skydiving on her birthday, Mother’s Day and the anniversary of her death. He then visited her grave.

Shanahan jumped Saturday just for fun. He booked Sunday’s jump as a backup in case the weather was bad but decided to go ahead and jump both days anyway, his mother said.

“We do not regret that he did. He got to live the life that he wanted to,” she said.

Shanahan’s skydiving instructor was Hershberger, who was on the plane with him Sunday. The two had another bond. Hershberger taught violin to two of Shanahan’s grandchildren.

Hershberger, 54, of Liberty, Missouri, also taught orchestra and played trumpet with the Kansas City Wind Symphony. His summers were spent at Skydive Kansas City, often harnessed to inexperienced jumpers exhilarated and nervous to cross something off their bucket lists.

Skydiving to find out more about yourself

Thacker, of Olathe, Kansas, jumped for seven years since first skydiving on his 18th birthday. He was set to get his skydiving coach certification over the weekend, his mother Sherry said.

“Skydiving had given him the confidence to do other things in his life, to be successful and reach for things maybe he thought he wasn’t good enough to do,” she said.

Thacker was an aviation software engineer and his mother saw that same methodical safety-oriented focus in his hobby.

“He said, ’Mom the danger in skydiving is really not the diving it¶¶Òőap the plane,’” she recalled.

Swope, 39, of Independence, Missouri, worked in IT, but every weekend he was up in the sky as he searched for any bit of fun, especially something he could share with others, his best friend, Justin Williams, said.

“He loved it. He gets to take people on their once-in-a-lifetime adventure every weekend, multiple times a day,” Williams said.

After Swope’s death, Williams said, he’s terrified to go skydiving again but also knows he has to because his friend knew to truly live is to take risks.

“It¶¶Òőap scary to be in the door, but the moment you let go, it dissolves away and induces a state of presence that you will not find anywhere else,” Williams said of free falling. “You don’t worry about the future. You’re not sad about the past. You’re just present, and it¶¶Òőap the most peaceful experience.”

The skydiving industry says it has a strong safety record. The United States Parachute Association said that last year nearly 3.5 million jumps were completed and that 16 civilians died, the majority from human error.

___

Associated Press reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

The directors voted unanimously at an operations committee meeting on Wednesday night to task RTD service planners with identifying specific reductions in service hours, frequencies, and routes, and to present them later this month. The planners will propose combinations of cuts to achieve service reductions of 15%, 17.5%, and 20%.

A 20% service cut would save an estimated $62 million to help close the $215 million annual deficit and balance the agency’s $1.5 billion budget. It would mean eliminating 7,300 hours of bus and train service per month across RTD’s 2,345-square-mile service area, according to agency documents.

For months, the directors have been wrestling with the implications of service cuts, including the risk that they could accelerate the decline in RTD’s ridership, which has decreased by nearly 40% since 2019. Those supporting service reductions say that, if cuts must be made, they should target runs where buses and trains are mostly empty while preserving the public transit people use.

“There are no other options that sustainably get the budget back into balance. The reason why we should cut service when people are not using it is because that has the least impact on our customers,” RTD Director Chris Nicholson said.

If voters in 2028 approve a tax hike for public transit, then RTD service could be “dramatically expanded” again, Nicholson said. “What we’re doing is starting on a path to right-size RTD. These cuts would show voters where we’re headed if voters don’t take action in 2028.”

The funding that RTD receives, mostly from sales taxes, hasn’t been enough to cover rising costs for labor, fuel, maintenance, and programs such as free fares for youth.

In April, RTD managers recommended a service cut of at least 20%.  Since then, the agency’s 15 directors have looked for other ways to balance their budget, including fare hikes, grant funding, reduction of managerial and executive jobs, and debt restructuring. They’ve anguished about the impacts service cuts would have on metro Denver residents who rely on public transit.

But the numbers don’t add up, forcing consideration of other savings, possibly by cutting early morning, late night, and weekend bus runs.

The decision this week marked a shift by the board toward accepting the agency managers’ recommendation.

“We need to come to the hard reality,” said Director Julien Bouquet, who previously served as the board chairman and represents the south Denver suburbs, including Littleton.

If RTD does not balance the budget for 2027, the financial institutions that RTD relies on for funds needed for large projects, such as maintaining tracks and bus fleets, could downgrade the credit rating, RTD’s chief financial officer Kelly Mackey has told directors. Colorado law and RTD’s fiscal policy require .

Over the past three months, Director Karen Benker, who chairs the RTD’s finance committee, led the efforts to reduce transit spending without cutting service.

“Finance committee members are reluctant to cut service, but the operations committee members just voted for deep cuts. We are divided,” Benker said Thursday, urging public input before final decisions are made.

“If RTD goes down this path of chopping service, we will continue to decline in ridership and relevance, and we will lose the faith of the taxpayers.  Some on the board want to seek a tax increase in 2028 because of our deficit situation. If RTD slashes service, there will be no interest by the taxpayers to bail us out.  We are leaving our customers stranded–waiting for a bus that never comes.”

RTD chief executive and general manager Debra Johnson told directors she will instruct the agency planning staff to identify the service cuts required for each scenario and present that information at a board meeting later this month.

Meanwhile, directors are mulling whether they can afford to maintain their ban on ads that block bus and train windows and are highly unpopular among riders. They’re planning to launch a new, hourly bus service, funded by a state grant, linking Longmont with Denver International Airport. They plan to revive RTD’s BroncosRide bus service, which would deploy 92 buses on routes from 18 locations around metro Denver to the football stadium, at an additional cost of about $1.6 million. And RTD officials confirmed that they’re still hiring bus and train operators to fill vacancies, offering $4,000 bonuses.

Travelers also will be targets of an airport-wide digital advertising program run by a France-based contractor, , that presents a shifting mix of ads selling global brand products and items unique to Colorado.  Airport officials plan to revive their erratic $30 million Peña Boulevard bright-lights billboard — and widen it — under a proposed 10-year deal that would bring DIA $184 million.

The focus on places to shop and eat — shopping and food outlets will increase from 200 to 240 — is part of a strategic shift over the past five years to maximize non-aeronautical by getting travelers to spend more.

To that end, DIA designers have increased seating close to shops in the terminal and the three concourses.

Airport planners track the average amount travelers spend before boarding planes — $16.13 in 2025, up from $13.91 in 2022, according to a master plan. DIA leaders have set a target of $690 million in gross sales this year, up from the record $650 milion last year, $590 million in 2024, and $539 million in 2023.

“We are under-concessioned at the airport for the passenger numbers we are seeing right now,” DIA chief executive Phil Washington said, referring to airport projections that the annual 82.4 million travelers will increase to 100 million within a couple of years and hit 120 million by 2045.

The growth of beyond its original capacity of 50 million has thrown the balance of travelers to retail shops and food sellers “out of whack,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said. It means “the line for Chick-fil-A is three times as long,” Johnston said. “You walk by. ‘Gosh, I am hungry.’ But with another 15 minutes to wait in line, ‘I am not going to stop.’ The more of those concessions stops we have, the more people can feel they can grab a quick bite to eat on their way to the plane.”

White tent transformed

As the construction that has disrupted DIA since 2018 nears completion, airport leaders are preparing for the 2027 opening of the Great Hall, the centerpiece of DIA’s renovation, hailing its living room hangout and meeting hub features: couches for adults, and pads for children to play on, beneath a massive sculptural “cottonwood tree” lit with reflective crystals, 60 feet tall and 70 feet wide.

But the Great Hall will also hold about 10 new retail shops and food concessions, including stores selling “travel convenience” items, at least two casual dining restaurants with bars, a cafe, and multiple quick-service food concessions — a change for the main terminal.

Commercial operations in the Great Hall will cover 22,000 square feet, airport spokeswoman Courtney Law said. The added 31,000 square feet to the main terminal, airport documents show. DIA’s commercial expansion also includes an additional 15,000 square feet of new commercial space in the concourses.

The airport has a policy of reasonable pricing in the retail shops and food concessions, restricting markups to no more than 15% higher than prices of the items sold outside of the airport. Law said that the policy will be enforced.

For travelers moving past shops, DIA also has set up 40 “kiosks,” including pop-up shops and vending machines, where local small businesses sell products such as socks, soft underwear, and candy.

Dwell time

“We want people to dwell,” said Chris Herndon, DIA’s chief commercial officer and a former Denver City Council member.

“When you come up the escalator off the train, you feel kind of still rushed to get to your gate. We want to create the sense that passengers can just linger. We want to make people calmer, more at ease, so that they are more measured and relaxed,” Herndon said.

“If we’re able to do it, it means less charges for our airline partners, and Denver can be a more profitable destination. Being able to drive concessions revenues higher benefits the airport overall,” he said.

¶Ù±őŽĄâ€™s come from airlines’ landing fees, parking, and concessions. The money generated from the retail shopping and food concessions flows back to DIA to help support airport operations. Major airlines at DIA receive a share of concession revenue.

There should be limits, said Kristen Schatz, spokeswoman for the consumer advocacy organization in Colorado. “We should be more focused on the quality of our lives than on the quantity of stuff we produce and consume. Travelers shouldn’t feel pressured to buy anything they weren’t planning to buy or don’t need,” Schatz said.

“An airport shop can be great if you absolutely need a snack or a charging cable that you forgot at home, though you can expect those items will be considerably higher in price and perhaps not as high quality as those purchased elsewhere. Revenues at airports may be better spent on safety-related infrastructure than on building out more ways to lure travelers into spending their money and buying more stuff.”

“Revenues to keep everything viable”

said increased food concessions will meet travelers’ needs. “I would not want to go to an airport where my only choice is McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A.”

The airport’s new digital ads program will lead to “decluttering,” by separating ads from directional signs at the baggage carousels, where travelers have complained of distraction, and by reducing the overall number of signs, Flynn said.

“To maximize airport revenue by having more ads is good. We have an obligation to maximize revenue to keep everything viable.”

The misdemeanor case was dropped and the file sealed June 4, Wilhoite’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, confirmed to The Denver Post on Monday. Meghan Patrick, special programs manager with the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said Wilhoite had been accepted into a diversion program. If he completes it, the file will remain sealed. If he fails to complete the program, though, the charges can be re-filed.

Wilhoite was originally charged with felony assault for allegedly punching the officer in the face in the dropoff lane at the airport in February 2024, telling the officer to “shut the (expletive) up” multiple times and driving away from the scene after the officer Tased him.

The felony assault charge against Wilhoite was downgraded to a misdemeanor in September and now it¶¶Òőap been dropped altogether.

Wilhoite was fired by the Broncos in May 2025.

The civil suit, filed in February by the police officer, Jesus Galvan Chavez, recounts the encounter with Wilhoite at the airport and claims Chavez was verbally and physically intimidated and threatened, assaulted, “including trauma and damage to (his) jaw, hip and left lower and upper extremities.”

It also claims Chavez “suffered emotional, psychological, and physical injuries including bodily pain and discomfort” along with “losses and damages, including past and future medical expenses, past and future lost earnings, physical impairment, disfigurement, past and future pain and suffering” and emotional distress.

Wilhoite responded to the suit in April, acknowledging the two had an encounter at the airport and that he was eventually arrested but denying all of the substantial allegations made by Chavez in the civil suit.

The civil case is set to go to a jury trial in March. According to a late April court filing, lawyers for Chavez and Wilhoite have talked about a potential settlement and the parties agreed to conduct mediation before Dec. 22.

The ground delay is in effect until 8:59 p.m., The FAA had previously instituted a ground stop at the airport, before shifting to a delay around 5:30 p.m. The average delay is roughly 76 minutes.

Six flights have been canceled at DIA and 897 more have been delayed, . More than half of the delayed flights originated in Denver, and 426 more were bound for the city.

The disruptions come as the National Weather Service projected that the metro area, up to Fort Collins and east across the plains, could face severe thunderstorms and hail as large as 3.5 inches. The NWS had also warned that high winds and tornadoes were possible.

By early evening, most of the storm had moved into the eastern part of the state.

Hail roughly 1 inch in size fell in the metro area, said Greg Heavener, an NWS meteorologist. The hailstones grew in size as the storm moved east, he said, and were potentially as large as baseballs. He said NWS had not received any reports of significant damage from the storm or hail but were still monitoring it.

Update 4:35 p.m.: The emergency sirens that echoed around Denver late Monday afternoon were “sounded inadvertently,” according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.

“There is no threat of destructive weather to Denver at this time,” the department said.

City spokesman Jon Ewing said the emergency management office would release a more detailed statement later Monday.

Update 4:04 p.m.: The National Weather Service issued another severe thunderstorm warning for Parker, Elizabeth and Franktown that is in effect until 4:45 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds of up to 60 mph, according to forecasters. A tornado is also possible.

Update 3:57 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters issued severe thunderstorm warnings for Denver International Airport, Commerce City and Thornton that are in effect until 4:30 p.m. Monday.

The storm could bring half-dollar-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph, according to the . A tornado also is possible.

A separate in effect until 4:15 p.m. for Evergreen, Golden and Kittredge warns of quarter-sized hail and winds up to 60 mph.

Update 3:25 p.m.: National Weather Service forecasters for Castle Pines, Centennial, Denver, Lakewood, Parker and Thornton that are in effect until 4 p.m. Monday.

Quarter-sized hail and 60 mph winds will be possible, warnings.

Update 2:45 p.m.: A tornado watch has been issued for northeastern Colorado and parts of Kansas and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.

The warning area covers Colorado’s Interstate 25 corridor from the Wyoming border south to Colorado Springs, which includes the Denver area, as well as the Eastern Plains, according to the weather service.

Tornados, up to softball-sized hail and damaging wind gusts up to 75 mph will be possible until the watch expires at 9 p.m. Monday, forecasters said.

Original story: Large hail may be headed back to Denver on Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

and hail larger than 2 inches to hit the metro area and north to Fort Collins. The storms are expected to start at around 2 p.m. and intensify as they move into the Eastern Plains throughout the evening, said Abby Pettett, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. For the area east of downtown Denver and along the I-70 corridor, hail is forecast to surpass 3.5 inches in size.

The hail could do “immense damage,” Pettett said. said it had “high confidence” in its forecast and projected that hail could be as large as 4.5 inches further east.

“Right now, the main threat is that large to very large hail,” Pettett continued. “However, there is also potential for very strong winds and also tornadoes.”

To stay safe from falling hail, the weather service recommends staying indoors, closing any shades or blinds, and otherwise staying away from windows. Drivers should stay in their car and pull over if possible while keeping their back to the windows. Motorists should not pull over beneath underpasses.

The forecast comes a week after a hail storm swept through the Denver area, delaying hundreds of flights at Denver International Airport.

The storms were not severe enough as of 4:45 p.m. to warrant official warnings from the National Weather Service, but posed enough risk to delay 143 departing flights and 107 arrivals, according to

As of 7:20 p.m. the number grew to 358 total delayed flights. Four departing flights were canceled, though the service does not detail if that is due to weather or other issues.

Southwest accounted for 113 delays, United accounted for 124 and SkyWest accounted for 63 delays. Frontier experienced 19 delays and American Airlines had 11. American also had two cancellations, while Alaska Airlines and United each canceled one flight on Saturday.

Washington has led DIA for five years through its growth into an emerging international hub with 34 nonstop flights to 18 countries, along with 202 nonstop flights to domestic destinations. Previously, Washington led metro Denver’s Regional Transportation District and served in the U.S. Army.

“I am honored to have served the public for so many years,” Washington said in a statement, saying he made “a long-planned decision” to step back on Aug. 1.

“I’ve worked in transportation and infrastructure, and we have accomplished so much, but my greatest accomplishments have been about building world-class organizations driven by vision, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to people. I am deeply proud of the work we have done and know that DEN remains in good hands with a talented team of dedicated professionals.”

Washington guided the airport through “an extraordinary period of growth and opportunity,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said.

“His leadership has had a transformational impact on DEN and the aviation industry, helping position our airport as a global leader in innovation, connectivity, and customer experience,” he said. “Phil’s legacy will be felt for generations.”

In 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Washington to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. Washington withdrew his name in March 2023, after delayed Senate confirmation votes, facing severe political pushback. After running RTD from 2009 to 2015, Washington ran the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 2015 to 2021.

The FAA issued the ground stop at DIA just after 1 p.m. Monday, . The agency downgraded the stop to a delay at 3:08 p.m., and it was expected to be in place until 8:59 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued a for the Denver area and the Eastern Plains shortly before the ground delay took effect, which will be active until 8 p.m., and a will be in effect for the airport until 3 p.m. Monday.

Colorado weather: Severe thunderstorm warning issued for Denver, Aurora

As of 5:13 p.m., 836 flights had been delayed and six had been canceled, . Roughly half of the delayed flights were trying to depart DIA, and half were scheduled to arrive at the Denver airport.

Delays included 280 United flights, 232 Southwest flights, 191 SkyWest flights, 56 Frontier flights, 21 Delta flights and 16 American Airlines flights, according to FlightAware.

SkyWest canceled three flights, United canceled two and Alaska canceled one, according to FlightAware.

This is a developing story and will be updated.