Washington’s Reagan National Goes Dark

The airport was without power for long enough to create chaos.

Reagan National
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Airport suffered a total power loss on Wednesday night around 10 PM.
  • The blackout lasted for approximately one hour, resulting in delays for both arriving and departing flights.
  • While air traffic control and airport lighting continued to operate via backup generators, the terminal experienced severe disruptions, including manual bag delivery and non-functional escalators.
  • The outage was attributed to a non-hardware related issue with an energy supplier.
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Reagan National

Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport had flights delayed both coming and going on Wednesday night after a total loss of power airport wide. The blackout, which hit around 10PM, lasted about an hour.

Because its systems can be powered by backup generators, the tower and airport lighting continued to operate throughout the outage, that otherwise caused havoc. The terminal had very little light, bags had to be delivered by hand after carousels stopped cold, passengers had to use the stairs instead of escalators (which essentially became stairs) and most businesses were forced to put commerce on hold.

The outage was blamed on a problem with an energy supplier, whom the airport authority said experienced some non-hardware related issues with the energy delivery.

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