Steamboat Springs — Few afternoon commercial flights made it to Yampa Valley Regional Airport, diverting to Denver because of concerns about the Hayden airport’s instrument landing system after a Piper Malibu single-engine private plane failed to arrive as planned, YVRA Manager Dave Ruppel said.

Morning flights had no problems, Ruppel said. The Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta, which was scheduled to arrive at 12:04 p.m. and leave at 12:48 p.m., arrived and departed basically on time. Weather and concerns about the landing system kept other planes away much of the afternoon, although a break in the snow has allowed some commercial flights to arrive in Hayden this evening.

An American Airlines flight from Dallas diverted to Denver this afternoon and then canceled, as did the Continental flight from Houston. All three United flights from Denver this afternoon and evening were canceled as well.

The Frontier Airlines mid-day flight from Denver was canceled, but the late afternoon flight was scheduled to land at YVRA at about 6:30 after originally being delayed.

The Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis was diverted to Denver this afternoon but was able to make the flight to Hayden early this evening and arrived just before 6 p.m. The American Airlines flight from Chicago also was able to make it into and out of Hayden today.

There are no known problems with the airport’s instrument landing system, Ruppel said. Federal Aviation Administration technicians have arrived in Hayden to make sure the instrument landing system was not to blame for the small plane’s disappearance, Ruppel said. He expects the system check to continue until about 9 p.m. this evening.