Philly Airport Hit by Power Outage

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A power failure knocked out air traffic controllers' radar displays and radio communications for 23 minutes at Philadelphia International Airport.

However, no pilots reported any ``safety issue'' as a result of the outage, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

The outage, which occurred early Wednesday, left only overhead lights operating in the tower, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in Saturday's editions, quoting officials of the Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The FAA said the blackout was caused by human error during a test of a new generator. In addition, a backup generator didn't come online and several phone lines were knocked out.

Of six jets in the air at the time, FAA officials say two landed safely on their own, and four switched to radio frequencies operated by another control center. Five planes on the ground also lost radio contact while waiting for takeoff instructions.

``It's pretty upsetting,'' said controller Richard Weaver, who was in the tower. ``Helpless is a pretty good description. ... You're lost. It's the Twilight Zone.''

Also on Wednesday, computer problems at the main air traffic control center for Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports caused numerous flight delays and cancellations.

And on Thursday, a computer problem at an air traffic control center at Ronkonkoma, N.Y., delayed departures from airports at New York, Philadelphia and Newark, N.J.

AP-NY-05-08-99 1338EDT

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Hope they get all the kinks worked out before something tragic happens!

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), May 08, 1999