Power fully restored at Atlanta airport, city says

UPDATE @ 12 a.m.:

Atlanta city officials said power has been fully restored at the airport.

UPDATE @ 11:42 p.m.:

Power has been restored to some of the Atlanta airport, including concourses A, B, F and T, according to city officials.

UPDATE @ 10:51 p.m.:

Delta has announced plans to cancel approximately 300 flights Monday due to Sunday’s power outage at the Atlanta airport, the company said in a statement.

The airline is urging customers to check Delta.com or the Fly Delta mobile app for the status of their flight.

The company said the cancellations are designed, in part, to allow the operation to best reset Monday.

Photos: Power outage paralyzes Atlanta airport

UPDATE @ 7:50 p.m.

About six hours after a power failure began at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, officials said a fire likely caused the outage.

Mayor Kasim Reed has tweeted: Power at Concourse F is back on. If you are in another concourse, please remain there. We have an additional update on when full power will be restored from.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

But while a fire caused extensive damage to an underground electrical facility, the cause is still not confirmed, officials with Georgia Power told The AJC.

UPDATE @ 6:53 p.m.

Georgia Power said it expects to have electricity restored by midnight to the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

It’s not clear how flyers will be able to get to their destinations on Monday.

UPDATE @ 6:25 p.m.

Five hours after a power outage began at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the scene was the same: a swirling mass of people in an aimless pattern trying to get cellphone signals in a darkening airport.

All flights were canceled and baggage was being held in a secure area for future pickup at the airport, Rick Crotts, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor who was stuck on a plane for hours, said.

Photos: Power outage paralyzes Atlanta airport

Delta Air Lines, which has its headquarters at the airport, said more than 450 flights were canceled, which affected flyers in Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus.

Canceled flights at the Dayton International Airport included Delta Air Lines Flight 2337, supposed to leave at 6:33 p.m. and Delta Flight 1161, scheduled to depart at 2:18 p.m. for Atlanta, as well as Delta Flight 2337 from Atlanta to Dayton, scheduled to arrive at 5:53 p.m. according to the airport's Flight Tracker.

At the John Glenn Columbus International Airport, three flights headed to Atlanta were canceled, including Delta Flights 758 and Southwest Flight 2363, both leaving at 5:15 p.m.; and Delta Flight 1646 that was scheduled to leave at 7:25 p.m. Delta Flight 1645 from Atlanta, scheduled to arrive in Columbus at 8:36 p.m., was canceled.

Three Delta flights to or from Atlanta were canceled at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Southwest Airlines reported about 70 Atlanta departures were canceled, the Associated Press reported.

In Georgia, five hours after the airport power outage began, Atlanta police arrived to help.

“We are aware of the situation and are assisting with crowd control and helping to manage traffic around the airport,” police spokeswoman Officer Lisa Bender told the AJC.

In Atlanta, passengers sat stranded in parked planes on the tarmac as officials offered few updates and no insight into the cause of the outage.

UPDATE @ 4:15 p.m.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport announced the FAA has ordered all flights grounded that were headed to Atlanta. Some flights are being diverted.

ATL is directing passengers to follow their airlines’ social media channels for flight information.

EARLIER

Delta flights at the Dayton International Airport to and from Atlanta are delayed because of a power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The airport is holding all inbound flights until at least 4 p.m. and departure delays are averaging nearly an hour and a half, according to FlightAware.

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Two Dayton flights to Atlanta are delayed and one inbound flight from Atlanta is delayed. Click here to track flights.

There also are three flights to Atlanta that are delayed at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

In Columbus, four arrivals from Atlanta are delayed. Also, three departures to Atlanta are delayed and one is canceled.

Flyers should check the official FAA website for air traffic control updates.

Rick Crotts, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor aboard a flight that had arrived at the airport around the time of the power failure, is among passengers still waiting aboard their flights to reach a gate.

Crotts' flight has been waiting for more than an hour, and the pilot reported that several planes are positioned before them for passengers to disembark.

Crotts said his Delta Air Lines pilot told passengers a construction crew cut a power line, causing the outage, but an airport spokesman, Andy Gobeil, said officials still weren’t sure.

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“We have not determined what caused it,” Gobeil said. Atlanta fire officials and others are “trying to determine how long it will take to get everything up and running.”

Georgia Power officials confirmed they are aware of the problem, but didn’t have additional information.

Flyers have reported chaotic conditions at the airport since the power failure.

Inside the airport at Concourse D, Olivia Dorfman told The AJC by phone she was about to board a flight home to Indiana when the power went out.

“Maybe 10 minutes later a buzzer went off in the background — that has been going on for over an hour and every so often bright lights flash in the ceiling,” Dorfman said.

Near the D9A gate, she said smoke filled the area and at different times airport workers tried to herd passengers toward the smoky area and away from it.

“This has been very bizarre,” she said. “No one seems to know what they’re doing.”

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