- Oakland Airport lost power more more than an hour during rush hour Tuesday night as Thanksgiving travel kicked into full force, causing cascading flight delays and diversions.
- The airport said on Twitter that it was working to resolve the issue, but did not provide further information. It said that power had been restored shortly after 8 p.m. PT.
- Users on social media reported that the airport was relying on emergency backup generators.
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Oakland Airport lost power during rush hour Tuesday night as Thanksgiving travel kicked into full force.
Users on social media reported that the airport was relying on emergency backup generators. Security screeners were reportedly resorting to full physical bag searches and pat downs, one Twitter user explained.
Users also reported that alarms were sounding, but that there were no announcements or communication from the airport.
The airport said on Twitter that it was working to resolve the issue, but did not provide further information.
Airport officials did not respond to multiple requests for information or comment. There was no immediate word about what caused the power outage.
Attention customers. Currently there is a power outage affecting the airport. OAK staff are working to resolve the issue. Please check with your airline for flight status. Updates to this issue will be made as information is received.
— Oakland Intl Airport (@IFlyOAKland) November 27, 2019
The airline tweeted that power had been mostly restored shortly after 8 p.m. PT, but urged travelers to check flight status with their airlines before heading to the airport. It added that "sporadic" outages remained.
Mariam Bouricius, a passenger on a Southwest flight that was supposed to depart to Houston, told Business Insider that she had been on the plane for nearly two hours waiting for power to be restored.
"We have been getting updates about every 10mins from either the captain or flight attendants," she said. "They've been great about doing water service and being diligent about answering what they can."
She added that the flight was still waiting to depart once power had been restored.
Some flights appeared to be departing, based on data from FlightRadar24. Some arriving flights appeared to be able to land, while others were diverting to nearby San Jose airport.
Departures from Oakland were averaging delays of 25 minutes shortly into the power outage, while arrivals were delayed an average of 40 minutes, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Times were expected to lengthen as delays continued to build.
Nearly 32 million Americans are expected to travel by air during the 12-day period surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday, from November 22 to December 3, 2019, according to industry trade group Airlines for America (A4A). 2.82 million were forecasted to fly on Tuesday, making it the third-busiest day before the holiday on Thursday.
Air travel across the US was already snarled due to several winter storms impacting Denver, Minneapolis, and Northern California, and Oregon.
Weather warnings were in place for Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo counties due to heavy rain and wind.
Were you at Oakland Airport, or are you an airport or airline employee? Reach out to these reporters at dslotnick@businessinsider.com, or sgray@businessinsider.com.
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