CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Power Failure Halts Flights at Airport

Commercial flights were halted Friday at Sacramento Metropolitan Airport, where an electrical fire knocked out the power and the runways’ landing lights. An airport official said at least 17 commercial flights--most of them intrastate commuter runs--were halted by the power failure, which followed a 12:30 a.m. blaze apparently caused by a mechanical failure in the airport’s elaborate electrical system. Many passengers whose flights were canceled were taken by bus to airports in San Francisco or Oakland. Flights at the airport 10 miles north of Sacramento resumed during the day but were halted again Friday evening because the runways’ beacons remained dark.