"Airports Operated During Blackout, but Barely / Airlines re-examine backups"

Friday, August 22, 2003

Airports Operated, but Barely / Airlines re-examine backups
By Sylvia Adcock 
Newsday (NY)


There was barely a hiccup in the control rooms and towers used by the
Federal Aviation Administration to guide planes through the sky, as battery
backups and diesel-powered generators seamlessly switched on and took over
during the blackout last Thursday. 

But on the ground, it was a different story. Although runway lights stayed
on, the power outage in the Northeast nearly crippled some airports and
snarled air travel across the nation for days. 

Security screening lines slowed as federal screeners manually searched
passengers and luggage. Airlines couldn't retrieve flight information from
their computers. Fuel pumps didn't work; fueling a jumbo jet took nearly
three hours instead of 45 minutes. 

In the end, hundreds of flights were canceled. 

The FAA was able to keep functioning because its backups are necessary for
safety - if its system fails, planes might crash. At the Port Authority' s
airports, too, backup generators are used primarily for safety, to keep the
runway lights on for landing planes and to keep some level of light in the
terminals. The amount of power available at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark
airports varies from concourse to concourse, with some of the decisions on
backup power left up to the airlines themselves. 

"The Port Authority provides power for life-safety systems. Anything above
and beyond that, it's a mixed bag ... the terminal operators may request
additional power from us or provide the power themselves," said Port
Authority spokesman Dan Maynard. 

At Kennedy's 2-year-old Terminal 4, the main international terminal, two
diesel-powered generators kept more than just the lights going. Its 50
carriers were able to print boarding passes and tickets, use many of their
computers and run most of the security screening functions without resorting
to time-consuming manual searches. 

But the rest of the airport struggled. Henk Guitjens, chief marketing
officer of JFK IAT Llc., the operator of Terminal 4, said airport users and
the Port Authority are discussing whether an on-site generator that cools
and heats water for air conditioning and heating could power buildings in an
emergency. 

At JetBlue's terminal, the Queens-based carrier had little power but
resorted to a manual system that kept most of its flights running, though
the last plane didn't depart until after 4 a.m. Friday, more than five hours
after the last flight at the airport had been scheduled to leave. The
airline was able to keep three passenger screening lanes open with the TSA
using its electrically powered equipment. And although the airline is
ticketless, agents were able to use printed passenger manifests and
bullhorns to check people in. 

Nigel Adams, JetBlue's vice president for customer service, said the airline
may purchase or rent truck-sized generators that could power the building if
necessary. "If you don't use it, it's a bit of money. But if you use it, it
pays for itself in a few hours." In the meantime, JetBlue and other airlines
continue looking at how they could have coped more efficiently. 

"We brought in two Mister Softee trucks and gave ice cream to employees and
customers," said Adams. "In retrospect, sno-cones would have been less
messy." 

The power outage had a far-reaching effect, in part because when air travel
slows in New York, it always affects the rest of the country. Shortly after
the power shut down, United Airlines contacted the FAA and asked the agency
to halt all flights to New York, including those from other airlines. After
consulting other airlines, the FAA issued a ground stop - which prevents
takeoffs but allows planes in the air to land - at 4:43 p.m., about a
half-hour after the power failure. Normally used during thunderstorms or air
traffic control problems, the ground stop later was extended to Cleveland,
Ottawa and Toronto, meaning planes around the country destined for those
airports were kept on the ground. 

That decision prevented passengers from flooding already crowded airports,
but dealt the airlines a new set of problems - aircraft not in the right
place at the right time to turn around for the next flight. 

Airport operators across the country are discussing the effect of the
outage, particularly with the TSA. "We're talking about what worked, what
didn't, what the future needs are, not just in a blackout, but in any
critical situation," said Maynard. "At the Port Authority, that discussion
is going right down to the level of concessionaires." 

But it may not be practical or prudent to expect an airport to operate
normally in a blackout. "Just like in any big city, the emergency power
supplies are meant for life-safety issues at an airport," said Ian Redhead,
vice president for airport facilities at Airports Council International, a
trade group. "It's not meant to run the whole airport. You cannot expect
things to operate normally." 

While Detroit was also without power, its airport fared better than most.
The new McNamara terminal, which just opened last year, got enough power
from its own power plant. 

Some travelers' advocates say the TSA should have more backup power
available to screen passengers. "In some cases, the airlines were ready to
go," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. 

"The TSA's job is to have this equipment set up in whatever way necessary to
do their job," he said, adding that the issue should be discussed between
the federal government and airports. 

Airlines compared the event to a major blizzard - except for the fact that
weather can be predicted and aircraft repositioned. "We're fine one minute,
we're not the next," said Tim Wagner, an American Airlines spokesman. 

At 3 p.m. last Friday, the second day of the blackout, American decided to
send its first flights out of Kennedy, creating four flights to accommodate
nearly 1,000 passengers. Agents had to bring critical flight information to
the tower at Kennedy by hand and manually check in passengers. 

"Launching an airplane for a flight is a very complicated endeavor, "
Stempler said.


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