Outage strands thousands at Atlanta airport
A major power outage halted air traffic Sunday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, grounding all of the hub’s outgoing flights and halting incoming traffic for tens of thousands of travelers hoping to land at the world’s busiest airport.
The disruption promises to wreak havoc on one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.
The outage, reported shortly after noon, forced travelers out of the darkened terminal and into an icy rain for hours. It stranded others on Atlanta’s tarmac as they waited to get off incoming flights.
Others were stranded on electric trams that run between terminals — they had to be rescued by firefighters.
As utility crews worked to fix the outage, passengers described a chaotic scene inside a smoke-filled terminal.
Olivia Dorfman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was about to board a flight when the lights went out.
Dorfman said smoke filled the area in the D Concourse. She said at least one other passenger described the acrid smoke as that of an electrical fire.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop for flights into the airport, holding them at departure airports across the world. The FAA said departures also were delayed.
Late Sunday, Georgia Power said the outage was probably caused by an electrical fire at an underground facility. The utility expected to have electricity restored by midnight.
In a statement, the FAA said the airport’s tower could operate normally, but departures were delayed “because airport equipment in the terminals is not working.”
Malou Cadavillo and her 16-monthold granddaughter sat on a motionless luggage carousel after making it to baggage claim by the light of fellow passengers’ mobile phones.
Cadavillo told the Journal-Constitution that her grandsons, 7 and 11, were uneasy. One of them said, “I hope there’s no monsters down here.”