Fire, power outage paralyzes the world's busiest airport in Atlanta
PHOTO: Passengers stranded as fire causes Atlanta airport blackout.
An electrical fire within Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International airport has caused a rippling effect of travel across America, and many other foreign countries. During the most crowded time of year, and at the world's most busy airport, thousands of travelers are stranded without good food, and with no place to sleep tonight.
The airport was ordered by the FAA for a total shutdown and a grounding of all flights at the airport. However, reports indicated that a Delta flight was permitted to take off at approximately 6:05 P.M ET and was the only flight to take off around the time following the reports of the incident.
Georgia Power recently came out with a press release after some passengers had reported being stuck on planes, sitting on the tarmac, for up to 6 hours. They said although they couldn't confirm anything, it was 'very likely a fire' that sparked the power outage that virtually terminated all service at the airport.
According to our analysts, the airport is directly to blame for the misfortune that can be considered dangerous for thousands of citizens within the airport. An on-scene generator is usually there to backup in the case of an electric failure or a power outage. In this case, though unconfirmed, it doesn't seem they functioned - at all.
No running water, horrible bathroom qualities (if any), no decent food, and horrible qualities of temporary life for at least many hundreds of citizens trapped on airplanes of many different airlines physically at a stand-still on the airport's tarmac. Due to absolutely no communication from the tower, they weren't authorized to move.
Not only did the generators not save the day; but the airport simply wasn't very good at getting the passengers off of the numerous planes stranded on the tarmac. Citizens reported being stuck there for at least 7 hours, with the time still running as the planes are simply not being properly evacuated.
Officials at the airport signified there had only been one mandatory evacuation of one of the terminals when citizens reported smelling smoke and some reported seeing some. One said it smelt like an electrical fire, another reported the smoke filled a small section of the room. All other terminals were under 'optional evacuation'.
By now, many hours after the power outage commenced, the airport suggested that citizens be evacuated from the airport at their own will saying it wasn't healthy for the passengers and travelers to stay overnight. Although many chose to leave, many others did not do so and chose to stay sitting on the airport floor.
Georgia Power told our sources in a press release that they expect the power to be re-generated and back properly at around midnight tonight; though it is unclear whether airlines would permit for service to resume. At the current time, Southwest, Delta, American Airlines and many others have canceled their flights from the airport.
International travel as well as American travel is being severely effected by the Atlanta airport blackout. Due to dozens of flights being canceled, and many other flights being relocated, our analysts of Aviation officials concluded that up to 1-week delays across the airlines is likely to follow the outage.
A media analyst of another agency told their live viewers that there was slight speculation that the outage could've been intentional and terror-related. Although most think this is almost fully unlikely, he rose the question that it is extremely easy to cause panic via a power outage like the sort we are experiencing in Atlanta.
According to the analyst, power generators would prevent any carnage or even any slight damage to America's aviation. Unfortunately the unprepared Hartsfield-Jackson rose the threat that others can toy with an airport's power in order to potentially inflict issues across America and virtually around the world.
The airport has been frozen and paralyzed due to the outage. Other hubs around the world, many of which use Atlanta as a lee-way airport, can be expecting major delays as many of their flights have to be either relocated or delayed by many hours.