[Mark17]

We had back up generators too, but sometimes they didn’t work, like that time. It came back in 5 minutes. By then, there was debris all over the place. The inmates started throwing stuff around, as soon as the lights went.
Once, when I was a controller, I had a bunch of airplanes flying around the pattern, when I lost commercial power, and the back up generator failed. Here I was, with airplanes up the wazzoo, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I had one commercial landline. I called the radar facility, and they made the call on guard, that the airport was now uncontrolled. All the aircraft landed on their own. It was hairy, but they all landed safely.

[mass55th]

"All the aircraft landed on their own. It was hairy, but they all landed safely."

That must have been a really scary situation. I'm assuming that the pilots could at least communicate with each other, and were able to land without a hitch. At least nobody panicked and caused problems.