Power outage disrupts Naia 3 flight operations

A power outage lasting almost five hours disrupted operations at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 past midnight on Thursday.

Airport authorities said the power line that supplied most of the electricity at the airport terminal suddenly tripped at around 12:17 a.m., leaving most operating systems of the terminal inoperable.

Adversely affected airport systems included the check-in computers, baggage conveyor systems and security scanners.

Octavio Lina, Naia Terminal 3 manager, said generator sets were immediately activated to temporarily supply electricity to some portions of the terminal at around 12:55 a.m.

He said the generators immediately kicked in but it took almost 30 minutes to reenergize essential facilities as lighting, aerobridges, security scanners, baggage conveyors and check-in computers.

“Power to the ‘priority components’ was restored at around 12:55 a.m.  However, the processing of the passengers took a while because it was done manually,” he said, adding that the terminal got normal supply of electricity only at 5 a.m.

A report reaching the Manila International Airport Authority’s  media affairs division said that the brownout occurred during a routine check by the terminal’s engineering department.

Travelers who had to suffer delays caused by the brownout could not contain their anger and dismay at how such a fiasco could happen at an international airport.

Apart from enduring the humid condition inside the terminal, passengers also had to deal with long queues, particularly in terminal entrances at the departure area.

The brownout also delayed at least four Cebu Pacific flights.

Departing passengers of flight 5J bound for Inchon, South Korea, had to go through a manual check-in process.

Arriving passengers of at least three flights from Inchon, Hong Kong, Busan (South Korea) were forced to disembark through the ramp area.