A nearly 45-minute power failure hit Los Angeles International Airport at about 2:30 p.m. today, halting passenger screenings and potentially delaying flights. The Department of Water and Power said its crews have restored service and that “the outage is being investigated.”
“Power has been restored to most locations or is coming online,” per a 3:08 p.m. tweet from LAX’s official account. “TSA is expected to resume screening in the terminals within 10-15 minutes. Conveyances will take a little longer to restart.”
The airport had tweeted earlier that “most of our terminals are impacted by the loss of power and crews are assessing the issue. Some departing flights may be impacted due to no power to jet bridges. Please allow extra time and check your flight status as we learn more.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, “The FAA’s air traffic control tower has electrical power and is able to provide regular services.” So far, the federal Department of Homeland Security is referring all questions to local authorities.
As of 2:35 p.m. PT, the airfield was “operating normally but some terminals, traffic lights and other systems may not have power,” LADWP said. The outage also stretched beyond LAX to areas including nearby Loyola Marymount University, which reported that power had been restored to the campus a little before 3 p.m.
There also were reports of power loss for businesses and hotels along Century Boulevard east of the airport and other areas of Westchester — including traffic lights on Manchester Boulevard and portions of Sepulveda Boulevard.
The story got the attention of national news media, as CNN led its 3 p.m. PT newscast with it. The outage at one of the world’s busiest airports follows repeated intentional attacks on power stations across the country in recent months, which remain under investigation by the FBI and regional law enforcement.
There were more than 100 such attacks on the grid in 2022, with the most recent occurring in Moore County, N.C., in December. Authorities determined that high-profile attack and outage at two power stations that left thousands in the dark for several hours was the deliberate result of gunfire.
It was nervous time for a while there as stars and executives from around the country and the globe descend on Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards on Sunday. (SOURCE)
