Power Loss Delays Flights

A two-second power outage at the Los Angeles International Airport control tower -- caused, officials believe, by a bird standing on an electrical line -- delayed nearly 100 commercial jets as technicians scrambled to bring equipment back on line.

The 9:38 a.m. outage occurred when the bird touched a power pole adjacent to the airport. The jolt momentarily cut off power at the control tower and administration building before the circuit restarted.

But even when power was restored, some of the control tower’s air radar, ground radar and communications gear didn’t immediately work. As a result, 70 planes that were approaching LAX for landing were forced to circle the airport anywhere from 10 minutes to nearly 1 1/2 hours. It took up to three hours for all the equipment to work again.

Federal Aviation Administration officials stressed that the tower never lost contact with the planes and that departing flights saw only minor delays.

“Tower controllers were always in contact with aircraft,” said Donn Walker, spokesman for the FAA, adding that an air-traffic control center in San Diego was monitoring all the flights. “Even during those two seconds when the L.A. tower blacked out, the San Diego control tower was there.”

The outage, however, disabled the equipment that instantaneously connected controllers in San Diego and Los Angeles. The San Diego controllers generally guide planes until they are five to eight miles from Los Angeles International. At that point, the LAX tower takes over.

“Normally they can just push a button and instantly talk to San Diego, but after the outage, they had to dial by phone,” Walker said.

The malfunctioning connection forced controllers in Los Angeles to land planes at half their normal rate.

The FAA on Monday launched an investigation into why the control-tower equipment took so long to restart after the power loss.

“Obviously, the equipment is designed to work when power comes back on,” Walker said.

Passengers and others at the airport seemed unfazed 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 who was on one of the delayed jets. “I’m always ready for longer lines, flights coming in later and gate changes. Anything goes at the airport.”

At noon, delayed flights began arriving at the terminal for Southwest Airlines.

By 12:30 p.m., weary passengers had swarmed the baggage claim area downstairs, waiting as luggage from three newly arrived flights and four late flights tumbled down the carousel.

“If I had other things to do, it would have been disruptive,” said Carol Mallah, a vacationer from Tampa, Fla. Cooling her heels by the carousel, she said, “I don’t let anything bother me. Life’s too short.”

In addition to the 70 flights in the air when power went out, some LAX-bound flights remained grounded at other airports until the control tower was operating again.

Utility officials traced the outage to a power pole near the intersection of 98th Street and Vicksburg Avenue. They believe a bird perching on the line touched either the pole’s cross arm or another grounded device.

“But we didn’t find the bird on the ground, so it might have flown away,” said Carol Tucker, spokeswoman for the Department of Water and Power.

The power disruption short-circuited a 34.5-kilovolt line that brought power to 26 stations in the airport complex. The power went out for two to 10 seconds in different patches of the airport before the circuit automatically re-energized.

“This kind of thing is not uncommon. It happens all over the city,” Tucker said. “It can happen from wind or rain, squirrels, birds and balloons.”

FAA officials said they didn’t know if LAX had ever experienced a similar power loss. But they said they were generally pleased with the response.

“Every single FAA facility has a contingency plan,” Walker said. “The whole reason we didn’t have to shut the airport down was because ours worked. The only thing was the few systems that didn’t come back afterward.”

Meanwhile, at 12:06 p.m. after a 40-minute wait, TV producer Ramos finally saw the flight she had been waiting for arrive at the gate. On board was a performer scheduled to do a voice-over.

The taping, however, had to be rescheduled.

“This put a lot of people’s days back,” Ramos said.