Power Outage Leaves Airport in the Dark

January 7, 2019      

A spectacular light show caused by an electrical emergency in Queens created moments of panic for some at LaGuardia Airport Thursday night.

Airline passengers were left in the dark inside the transit hub’s terminals, but why? Runways were also temporarily shuttered following the Con Edison voltage monitor malfunction which illuminated the New York skyline with an eerie blue-green hue.

The 13 minute power outage delayed some 15 flights from taking off for up to an hour and rerouted nine planes to other airports.

It left many wondering how an airport the size of LaGuardia, in a city the size of New York, shut down from a mere power outage. Shouldn’t there be an uninterrupted source of power on backup to keep the airport running right away?

“A power outage of this nature could happen at any airport,” LaGuardia General Manager Lysa Scully said.

But thousands of people were taken off guard over the holiday.

Nearby, Rikers Island prison reported no sustained power outage thanks to its backup system.

“LaGuardia has backup power, but it’s basically emergency backup power and not really a backup system that would allow the LaGuardia Airport to operate safely,” Cuomo said.

The runways were closed for 13 minutes as a precaution to make sure everything was safe.

“It’s very concerning,” she admitted regarding the temporary terminal outages. “We don’t want people in the dark.”

LaGuardia went through a rebuilding, but no backup power system was installed. So what’s the plan going forward to prevent what happened last week from happening again?

“Having LaGuardia backup generators that allowed LaGuardia to function is something that we’re going to further explore,” the governor said.

For more information on backup power, contact South Shore Generator in Wareham, MA.

Source: CBS New York

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