Thu, Aug 09, 2007
Electrical Fire Puts Airport In The Black
A small electrical fire is being blamed for a two-hour blackout
at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) on
Tuesday afternoon.
Officials at MKE told The Associated Press the power outage
caused numerous outbound flight delays. Several airport shops were
also forced to close their doors.
Perhaps worst of all... the airport was also without air
conditioning until around 6 pm, as temperatures outside hit the
high 80s.
An investigation is underway, but airport spokesman Pat Rowe
said the cause appears to have been a small fire, possibly caused
by a contractor working in an underground utility tunnel.
"It slowed things considerably," Rowe said. "People's baggage
was being screened by hand and they were being hand-wanded through
security."
Inbound flights were relatively unaffected, as the airport's
control tower has its own power supply. Once passengers made it
onboard their outbound flights, those planes were also able to
leave in a more-or-less normal manner.
A spokeswoman for Midwest Airlines -- which has more than 230
daily departures from the airport, the carrier's hub -- said it
could have been a lot worse, and in fact turned out better than she
had feared.
"The delays were pretty short, but the jetways weren't moving,
so we would pull up the stairs to the aircraft doors," said Carol
Skornicka. "I thought we were facing something like all night. It
caused a great deal of inconvenience, but it's not like being down
for two days with bad weather.
"It's relative to a certain extent," she added.
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