Posted on 12/17/2017 2:43:30 PM PST by metmom
A complete power outage at the nation’s busiest airport, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, grounded flights Sunday afternoon, threatening to cause a holiday travel nightmare for fliers across the country just over a week before Christmas.
Airport officials said in a news release the power outage has forced the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend outgoing flights and implement a "ground stop" for incoming flights, which "means that flights headed to Atlanta are held on the ground at their departure airport."
International flights will be diverted to land at other airports, U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted.
Atlanta Airport tweeted that reports the outage was caused by a construction crew which cut a power line was "NOT confirmed," and added: "We are working with @GeorgiaPower to identify and fix ASAP." The outage happened just after 1 p.m. on Sunday, according to airport officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
indeed. if anything, I would suspect it’s a bit calmer with no flights. wonder if they closed the bars.
Dry run? The passenger’s complaints about staff in continuous disarray makes me think staff at airport have lost their communications. Passenger notes a man “yelling” come this way - where’s the PA system? It’s the level of uncoordination (yeah I know, it’s an airport) that makes me think this is more than a power outage. In the article, passengers talk about acrid smell of electrical “burning” or something.
Kidnapped and held hostage by the Feds and the Airline....
Sounds like it’s not an EMP attack anyway.
My thoughts exactly. My husband was flying into Detroit several years ago for a wedding. The rest of our family and I were already there. It was the huge power outage in August of 2003 I believe. The entire event was quite humorous and we still laugh about it today.
This one seems much more ominous....and not funny at all. Mainly because it seems to center around the airport and the communication is lacking.
And my daughter is stuck on a plane in the midst of it.
What a total nightmare.
Probably like what happened in the 2003 blackout. A fault occurs in a section of the grid and instead of isolating the area the excess power is sent down the line which causes another fault which sends more power down the line until the entire grid fails.
“That’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That’s the night when they shut the airport down.
Don’t trust your flight to no kerosene lantern runway
When CNN sucks up all the electricity.”
Just not the same.
Already had that thought. She is handling it well, grateful she got an upgrade. Once she gets off the plane we can assume that all the rental cars are already gone.
Thankfully my son is on vacation this week. He’d be in the middle of this.
When does the looting start?
No, I did that one too. I was in Detroit. First they said it was a substation downriver. Then we realized it involved multiple states. So the power outage was not centered around Metro Airport.
I never did hear exactly what regions were all involved.
We didn’t have power and were trying to get a wedding to go off uninterrupted.
Yeah, the public airlines system these days has no slack. One “matter” arises and tons of peeps are shafted.
I’ve flown but twice the year, one way from City A to General Greater Metro Area B each time.
Two different airlines.
The first trip started mid day with 3 legs ending up 60 mi from home, the second, very early morning, with two ending up ~30 mi from the compound.
For Trip # 1, on Leg three they decided to do a brake job on the plane at the gate. I switched to a different, same distance to the compound destination. Rented a car, (barely) made it home the same day
The second was OK with a couple of different public trans connections. Still took about all daylight part of the day to make it.
I really like the 1.5 day drive better now.
You winz Teh Interwebz today!
All the way around Lake Erie and beyond.
I am not hearing back from her now. Most likely means one of two things.
1 bad cell reception or 2 they are deplaning
Getting/finding luggage should be real interesting.
This is a scary deal, friends and family in Atlanta are down to praying, something very odd....
THAT's gonna be a real problem.
I find I can haul a ton more stuff in the vehicle rather than on a plane. And when I get there, I don't have to rent a car!
Is something happening that they are not telling us?
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