Vice President Joe Biden once called LaGuardia Airport in New York "an airport out of the Third World." Friday's chaos at the international gateway confirmed the VP's observation.
Thousands of Delta passenger's travel plans were disrupted when power outage hit the airport, causing Delta Airlines to cancel 168 flights, reports The Wall Street Journal. Contract workers accidentally damaged power lines while digging at the airport, causing power interruption in parts of Terminal C, passenger loading bridges and two parking lots at about 4:30 p.m., according to officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The authority's spokeswoman identified the subcontractor that caused the outage as J.P. Hogan Coring & Sawing Corp. The workers were digging to pave the way for the construction of a new lightning vault near the gateway's runways. They hit the power lines that provide electricity to Terminal C. The damage did not affect runway lights.
About 30 percent of Delta's flights were cancelled, causing very long lines at the Delta counter inside Terminal D. Airport employees had to face questions from travelers who wanted to know when flights would resume. To appease the confused and angry Delta passengers, the airport distributed bottled water.
But only Delta Airlines was affected. Shuttle flights of American Airlines were delayed only by a few minutes, USA Today reports.
It was not only departing Delta passengers who were affected by the power outage but also arriving travelers since LaGuardia-bound jets were delayed at their ports of origin by an average of three hours, according to aviation-tracking service FlightAware.
Using backup generators, the airport operators restored electricity after five hours, according to Lysa Scully, manager of LaGuardia for the Port Authority.
Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will take part on Monday in a Manhattan event wherein LaGuardia's future would be discussed. Cuomo launched a redesign contest for LaGuardia and other New York aviation facilities.