Officials blamed a bird on a power line for a seconds-long power failure that disrupted air traffic at Los Angeles International Airport for up to 1½ hours.
The power failure Monday morning caused delays of 15 minutes to 90 minutes for an estimated 80 to 100 Los Angeles-bound flights, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker said. Airport operations were back to normal by noon Monday.
A 34.5 kilovolt supply line went out for 10 seconds at 9:38 a.m., said city Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Carol Tucker. The line serves 26 industrial customers at the airport.
Apparently, a bird came in contact with the line and at the same time touched a cross-arm or some other grounded device, the DWP said in statement. The line re-energized moments later.
“But we didn’t find the bird on the ground, so it might have flown away,” said Tucker.
Many passengers and others at the airport said they weren’t bothered by the delay.
“Since 9-11 we’ve been accustomed to anything happening at the airport,” said Mickey Ramos, a TV producer waiting for a client delayed by the outage. “I’m always ready for longer lines, flights coming in later and gate changes. Anything goes at the airport.”
Despite the immediate restoration of the power supply, the effect on the airport’s control tower lasted longer.
All radar, radios and telephones were hit by the outage, disrupting everything that Los Angeles tower controllers use to communicate with aircraft and other control facilities. The airport’s ground radar also did not immediately work properly after the blackout.
Most functions came back quickly but some important equipment remained out, including critical switching equipment that allows instantaneous communication between Los Angeles tower controllers and the approach control facility in San Diego County, Walker said.
However, he added, “tower controllers were always in contact with aircraft” after the failure.
The switching equipment was restored after about three hours.
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April 13, 2004 at 11:45 am