Author Topic: Power Outage at JFK Airport Scrambles Flights  (Read 2126 times)

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Power Outage at JFK Airport Scrambles Flights
« on: February 17, 2023, 09:49:52 AM »
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/power-outage-at-j-f-k-airport-scrambles-flights/ar-AA17Arn0?cvid=54a05331a36d471e95ce5c849b2fd3e2

Terminal 1 at Kennedy Airport in New York was closed to air traffic on Thursday, causing lengthy delays for passengers and scrambling flights at one of the world’s busiest airports
An electrical panel failure caused a “small isolated fire overnight that was immediately extinguished,” leading to a power outage at Terminal 1, said Alana Calmi, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.The Port Authority and its terminal operators are working together to accommodate impacted flights using other terminals,” Ms. Calmi said. “Travelers are urged to check with their carriers for flight status.”

Thousands of passengers saw their travel plans thrown into disarray.

An ITA Airways flight en route to New York from Milan returned to Italy after several hours in the air. An Air France flight from Paris, originally bound for J.F.K., was diverted to Newark Liberty International Airport after passengers waited for three hours on the tarmac before departing.

Other flights were diverted to airports even farther away. An Ethiopian Airlines flight from Frankfurt landed at Boston Logan International Airport instead of J.F.K. on Thursday, and an Egypt Air flight from Cairo landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., J.F.K.’s website showed.
A flight from Auckland, New Zealand, presented a more extreme case: After seven hours in the air, it diverted back to its origin city. A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand said that it turned around because landing at another airport in the United States would have caused more flight delays. The flight landed back in New Zealand on Thursday evening after more than 16 hours in the air.

Sa’auda Dunlap, a social worker in New York, and seven relatives sweated it out in Terminal 7 at J.F.K. after their Turkish Airlines flight to Accra, Ghana, was rerouted there from Terminal 1.

“Lines are long. It’s hot. Miserable. 4 laptops are being used to check us in. We’ve been given limited info,” Ms. Dunlap said on Twitter.

Hours after the flight was scheduled to depart, Ms. Dunlap and her family continued to wait in line in a terminal where, she said in an interview, the air-conditioning was not working on an unseasonably warm winter day, and no one was handing out water.

“They didn’t give us a departure time,” she said. “They’re not giving us anything.”

The Terminal 1 tarmac was closed to pilots at 2 p.m. on Thursday and would remain closed for 24 hours, according to the F.A.A. safety notice.

While the Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint at Terminal 1 remained open, the power outage meant that only two of eight lanes were operating, causing further delays, said Lisa Farbstein, a T.S.A. spokeswoman.

“T.S.A. is eager for power to be restored so that we can resume normal checkpoint operations,” she said.

For years, J.F.K. has had a reputation for flight delays, long security lines and other inconveniences for travelers.

In 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced that the Port Authority had struck a revised deal for the construction of a $9.5 billion international terminal intended to ease congestion at J.F.K., part of an ambitious overhaul of the airports serving New York City.