Power Outage At Detroit Metro Airport Causes Huge Delays
ROMULUS (WWJ) - A power outage, coupled with stormy weather, caused massive delays at Detroit Metropolitan Airport Wednesday morning.
Airport spokesperson Mike Conway said the power went out at the North Terminal around 3:30 a.m., and electricians quickly went to work to identify the problem.
Reporting live from the scene, WWJ's Sean Lee said the outage caused a large backup at the security gate, where all travelers were told to wait in line.
"Literally hundreds and hundreds of people are backed up into one line for security," Lee said. "They opened up a second gate and let regular fliers go through the expedited line and that really helped ease congestion. We rushed to our gate and then found out because of the weather now, we're delayed."
Because the computer system didn't have power, many employees were unable to swipe their security badges and had to have their ID's checked manually. Airport attendants were manually ripping tickets in half, giving one half to passengers, because the ticketing system was also down.
Conway said the power was fully restored shortly after 8:30 a.m., returning all airport operations back to normal.
