PPRuNe Forums - JFK closed

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No power according to Fox news. Eastern Grid down. Power cuts right across eastern USA to Detroit and into Canada. Toronto and Ottawa also suffering power cuts.

Quote:

AP (Associated Press) - 2127GMT 14AUG03 - urgent-newsdesks -
NEW YORK: New York City.
reopens
In New York, the blackout affected subways, elevators and airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Thousands of people streamed into the streets of lower Manhattan in 90-degree (32-Celsius) heat.
In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, workers also fled their buildings after the blackout hit shortly after 4 p.m. EDT (200 GMT). There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown Cleveland and other major cities, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour.
Every prison in New York state reported a loss of power and switched to backup generators, said James Flateau, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
In Albany, New York, several people were trapped in elevators in Empire State Plaza, but most had been freed by 5 p.m. People in New York City lined up 10 deep or more at pay phones, with cell phone service disrupted in some areas.
The blackouts rivaled those in the West on Aug. 11, 1996, when heat, sagging power lines and unusually high demand for electricity caused an outage that affected 4 million customers in nine states, one of the most severe outages in US history.
A blackout in New York City in 1977 left some 9 million people without electricity for up to 25 hours.
“There is no evidence of any terrorism at this point,” said Michael Sheehan, deputy commissioner for terrorism of New York City’s Police Department. “We’ve talked to Washington and there are rumors, but none of them pans out.”
MORE 142123 aug 03GMT

Quote:

REUTERS-bc gen-3665-scot-32
UPDATE 1
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 – Air traffic headed into the three major New York-area airports was halted on Thursday because of a massive power outage in the eastern United States and Canada, regulators said.
The ground stops also affected Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
This means that flights for these cities yet to take off from other airports must remain on the ground. Flights in the air may be allowed to land or could be diverted.
The FAA said that control centers and airport towers in New York and other American cities affected by the blackouts were running on diesel backup generators and flight operations were normal.
REUTERS

Detroit Airport reporting now closed

Looks like Toronto Pearson Airport has all but shut down. Most inbound flights are delayed or cancelled but all outbound flights are halted.

This must make alternate landing decisions complicated for airborn atlantic flights. How is this handled by the systems and the flight crews?

JFK is still acccepting arrivals from aircraft that were in the air, but no new flights to JFK are being allowed to depart for the time being.

I looks like this will clear up in a few hours power wise...who knows how long NYC will take to get nack to normal.

airbone flights to Toronto

My little son is right now flying from LHR to Toronto onboard BA 097. They took off at 1645 GMT and expected to land at 0135 GMT. Anybody knows if this flight was diverted to any Newfoundland airport? Is it Toronto airport accepting incoming traffic?
Regards.

BA 97/14 still showing arriving Toronto. It's a bit early with arrival sked for 21:07 local. Most Air Canada flights cancelled. Getting around on the ground is more of a problem. Gridlock over a wide area in Toronto.

http://www.gtaa.com/webfids/arrivals.htm

Thank you Rollingthunder. It´s time to go bed. My wife and myself do appreciate.
REGARDS.:D

Dateline May 14th 2004
(also Basil's birthday & you seriously don't want to know which one)

North American birthrate rises! Ultimate terrorist plot succeeds beyond wildest dreams! Babies clog hospitals streets, sewers, milk parlo(u)rs. Pensioner eaten alive by starving infants! Clinton paternity suit by thousands!

Basil has lost the plot - must go and chill out by TV :bored:

Lightning strike at Niagra power station announced as probable cause.

Looks like some flights did get out -- just spoke to a friend who is on AF023 JFK-CDG. They did depart JFK relatively on time, but with the electricity out they only fueled it to get to BOS where it's now sitting while they accurately fuel it up for the hop across the pond.

Also just saw BR032 depart Seattle for it's normal continuation to EWR, albeit a couple hours late, so thing are slowly getting back on track.

NEW YORK CITY - An extraordinary power blackout hit steamy U.S. and Canadian cities Thursday, stranding people in subways, closing nine nuclear power plants from New York to Michigan and choking streets with workers driven from stifling offices.

Canadian officials said late Thursday the outage was caused by a lightning strike at the Niagara power plant.

"We have been informed that lightning struck a power plant in the Niagara region on the U.S. side," said Jim Munson, a spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

The blackouts robbed the electricity used by millions of people in a broad swath of the Northeast - stretching west to Ohio and Michigan - and in southern Canadian cities, starting shortly after 4 p.m. EDT. In Toronto, Canada's largest city, workers fled their buildings when the power went off. There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.

Power began to come back in some cities as afternoon turned to evening, but officials said full restoration would take much longer.

Outages ranged over an area with roughly 50 million people.

More on it:
http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=26633

According to BA's website, BA97 diverted to Montreal.
I'm sitting in the dark drinking my still cold beer waiting for the power to return. Fortunately there's a bit of juice in the laptop too!
BA98 back to LHR is cancelled for tonight, Mrs C is supposed to be on it tomorrow, she hopes that will be cancelled too!!!

Just had a look at BA's site. It's indicating 97/14 departing YUL for YYZ - eta 21:35 local???

I beleive that the exact same thing happened back in the early 60's. Also due to an equipment problem (think it was a switch) in the same area and causing blackouts over the same space. Saw a program (think it was one of James Burkes) showing a KLM 707 on approach to JFK when the lights went out. Didn't they FIX this 40 years ago?! I find it hard to beleive that a "lightning strike" could trip a power plant off line in this day and age-they never heard of surge protection circuits?? :*

Speculation of course, but it sounds like the whole system was stretched to breaking point. One power station goes off line due to a lightning induced fire and the whole grid comes down like a pack of cards.

The quote of the day has to come from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3152451.stm

Quote:

"I had to get out of the house," she said. "It was so dark, and everything was off, and I was scared. No air conditioner, the phones - they need electricity. And it's so, so hot."

:O
Expect a BABY BOOM next May ??? :{ :ok: :D

AP is reporting that ALL U.S. airports except JFK now open to incoming flights. JFK expected to be operating by 0100Z.

...would that be 0100Z/16AUG or 1300Z today...?

:confused:

BBC reporting that a Virgin Atlantic plane en route from London to New York had to turn back three hours into the flight.

Exhausted passengers from Virgin Atlantic flight VS017 arrived back in the UK at 0200BST on Friday, after an aborted attempt to reach New York, and were taken to a hotel overnight.

Virgin is planning to fly most of the passengers out to New York at 1530BST on Friday.

Businessman Arthur D'Arcy, 45, originally from Surrey but now living in New Jersey, said Virgin had treated the passengers well.

He said: "About three hours in the pilot came on the tannoy and said, 'I'm sure you are wondering why we are taking a left turn in the middle of the Atlantic'.

"He then told us it was a power failure in the US and because we were before the halfway point of the flight we would have to go back.

"Everyone is obviously very tired but there isn't really much you can do about it."

But Becky Jones, 27, from Swansea, said: "I have just sat on a flight for two-and-a-half hours, to be told we have got to come all the way back to where we started.

"And all just because there was a power cut. You can't tell me that the whole of the US and Canada can't even sort out their national grid. It's ridiculous.

"We were basically sitting on the plane the whole way back worrying that there has been some terrorist attack or a plane has flown into a building."

Motocross rider and amateur photographer Danny Axworthy, 21, from Knutsford, Cheshire, said: "I can't believe we've got to go through it all again tomorrow.

"But Virgin were pretty good about it all. It's not their fault. They have been as helpful as they can.

"You've got to blame the authorities in the US, but that's America for you."

BA has asked passengers to check the status of flights before heading for the airport, by calling 0870 8509850, or via their website.