Long power outage delays flights in Minneapolis

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A power failure disabled jetways at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, causing flight delays and cancellations Saturday and disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.

The power went out in four concourses in the main terminal around 8 a.m. Saturday, leaving jetways inoperable at 60 gates or about half the terminal, said airport spokeswoman Melissa Scovronski. Crews were still working to restore power Saturday evening.

The outage affected flights of Delta Air Lines Inc. and its partners, but few if any from other airlines. Scovronski said airport officials didn't have totals on cancellations, delays or passengers affected. She said flight information displays in the terminal were not updating automatically via their normal data feed from Delta, so workers had to update the screens manually.

A Delta spokesperson did not immediately return phone calls from the Associated Press seeking details.

Passengers were taken off some arriving planes on the tarmac with mobile staircases and bused to the terminal, Scovronski said.

The Star Tribune reported that hundreds of people lined up to rebook flights, including Kevin and Mary Sarvis, who were trying to get home to Pierre, S.D., from a visit to Walt Disney World in Florida.

"I thought we left the lines at Walt Disney World," Mary Sarvis told the newspaper. "Now we have to spend the night in a stupid hotel."

Kris Kirkegaard missed her connection home to Chicago after arriving from San Diego.

"I'll miss out on seeing friends tonight," Kirkegaard told the Star Tribune. "But maybe I can catch up with some old friends here, because we used to live here."

Delta passengers were advised to call the airline or check its website for flight status.

Scovronski said crews still had not determined what caused the failure by Saturday evening, but knew how they planned to fix it.

"It's a more complicated project than we initially assumed it would be," she said.

Xcel Energy spokeswoman Mary Sandok said the utility's crews were assisting but that the failure occurred in the airport's equipment, not the power company's.

The rest of the airport, including the control tower, was not affected.




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