# Atlanta: World's Busiest Airport Paralyzed. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 18, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742 "2017-12-18T00:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/1 "2017-12-18T00:06:36Z")
Story [here](http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/17/us/atlanta-airport-power-outage/index.html). Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Didn’t see a thread about it, so I’m starting this one. Feel free to close it if I missed it. But the world’s busiest airport has been socked with a total power outage for six hours now. Cause unknown, and they’re saying it may take a couple of days to get back up to speed, and that’s only once the power comes back to any extent. Ominously, John McClane has been spotted running through the facility. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/2 "2017-12-18T00:15:52Z")
Formerly “World’s Busiest Airport” Chicago’s O’Hare Field just sitting there, pointing and laughing… ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/3 "2017-12-18T01:32:29Z")
From Georgia Power: > [@](#): > > 6:35 pm – Georgia Power expects power to be restored to Atlanta airport by midnight. Here is the utility’s full statement: > > "Georgia Power continues to work closely with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport personnel onsite to restore power to the Airport as quickly as possible. Assessment and repair efforts are well underway at this time and the company expects to have power restored to the Airport by midnight tonight. > > "Georgia Power believes the issue may have involved a fire which caused extensive damage in a Georgia Power underground electrical facility. The fire was safely extinguished by fire crews before Georgia Power could enter the area to assess damage and begin repairs. > > "The event impacted not only the underground facilities, but also substations serving the Airport and, while the cause is not yet known, Georgia Power’s system responded by isolating areas where equipment wasn’t operating correctly to ensure safety and minimize damage. No personnel or passengers were in danger at any time. > > “Georgia Power has many redundant systems in place to ensure reliability for the Airport and its millions of travelers - power outages affecting the Airport are very rare.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/4 "2017-12-18T01:47:19Z")
Single point of failure? Not smart, Georgia Power. I’ve read that international flights are being diverted to other airports because while they can land, I think, customs is down so the people on them can’t go anywhere. Have fun, Delta. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/5 "2017-12-18T13:23:45Z")
Not necessarily a single point of failure. Here’s a perspective from a guy who builds data centers for Amazon. It was written a few months ago about similar problems: [At Scale, Rare Events aren’t Rare – Perspectives](http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/at-scale-rare-events-arent-rare/) His punch line being that a lot of protective systems are concerned with protecting themselves, not the far more valuable things downstream that they shut down in self-defense. I certainly don’t know the details about ATL today, so this may not be relevant to this incident. But it is thought-provoking about redundant system design. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/6 "2017-12-18T13:55:37Z")
I assumed some guy running a floor polisher knocked a plug loose. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/7 "2017-12-18T14:12:15Z")
In case you haven’t seen it,[here’s exclusive footage of what happened.](https://youtu.be/g_rWja1Xiu8?t=9s) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/8 "2017-12-18T14:12:21Z")
Good Jeopardy question. “This city has the busiest airport in the world.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/9 "2017-12-18T14:46:55Z")
Sounds like one for the recent thread [Trivia questions which, amazingly, have two answers](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=844093). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/10 "2017-12-18T17:41:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I certainly don’t know the details about ATL today, so this may not be relevant to this incident. But it is thought-provoking about redundant system design. How do you have redundancy in power distribution? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/11 "2017-12-18T18:51:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How do you have redundancy in power distribution? Electric lines coming from two separate sources/substations/directions. I am surprised that they weren’t able to call in a [generator](https://www.riggscat.com/content/uploads/2016/03/1825kw-jpg.jpg) [trailer](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_QnDNBW-MNN0/Tc90w_JhZuI/AAAAAAAAAKw/hv7w74oHgLY/s1600/001_trailer_mount_cat.jpg), hook it up & be back running fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/12 "2017-12-18T19:31:18Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Electric lines coming from two separate sources/substations/directions. That is going to be darn expensive. You have to keep them in phase, for one thing. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/13 "2017-12-18T20:02:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How do you have redundancy in power distribution? You don’t route the main power and the backup power through the same narrow tunnel for one thing. Because there can never be a fire there, right? Like I said, single point of failure. It appears that planes which had left the gate were stuck 3 hours before they even started to bring them back for unloading, which they could only do a few at a time. Poor people. I know airlines get fined when they screw up and strand people on planes too long, but I trust that they won’t for this case, since it wasn’t there fault. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/14 "2017-12-18T20:04:03Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Electric lines coming from two separate sources/substations/directions. > I am surprised that they weren’t able to call in a [generator](https://www.riggscat.com/content/uploads/2016/03/1825kw-jpg.jpg) [trailer](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_QnDNBW-MNN0/Tc90w_JhZuI/AAAAAAAAAKw/hv7w74oHgLY/s1600/001_trailer_mount_cat.jpg), hook it up & be back running fairly quickly. The tower still had power, but no number of backup generator trucks is going to handle a full airport. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/15 "2017-12-18T20:07:55Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > That is going to be darn expensive. You have to keep them in phase, for one thing. They already had backup power. But they put it next to main power. [Story here.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/18/atlanta-airports-main-and-backup-power-lines-flow-through-same-tunnel-damaged-fire/961529001/) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/16 "2017-12-18T20:46:51Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The tower still had power, but no number of backup generator trucks is going to handle a full airport. Why not? It’s got a big foot print but most of it is lighting, which, especially if LED, isn’t that big of a draw. The other major draws are [ul] [li]ticketing/gate computers, but they don’t all need to be powered. [/li][li]Merchant computers/cash registers. Relatively small draw each, but numerous.[/li][li]Security screening/x-ray machines. Again, they can limp by on some limited percentage of those running. [/li][li]The last ‘big’ draw is the baggage/conveyor system, which is a series of motors running belts. [/li][li]Are the jet bridges electric or some type of combustion engine?[/li][/ul] This assumes ATC is separate. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/17 "2017-12-18T23:13:58Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Why not? It’s got a big foot print but most of it is lighting, which, especially if LED, isn’t that big of a draw. > > The other major draws are > [ul] > [li]ticketing/gate computers, but they don’t all need to be powered. [/li][li]Merchant computers/cash registers. Relatively small draw each, but numerous.[/li][li]Security screening/x-ray machines. Again, they can limp by on some limited percentage of those running. [/li][li]The last ‘big’ draw is the baggage/conveyor system, which is a series of motors running belts. [/li][li]Are the jet bridges electric or some type of combustion engine?[/li][/ul] > > This assumes ATC is separate. The jet bridges are electric and draw tons of power. That was one of the big problems. They were immobile. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/18 "2017-12-18T23:25:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Good Jeopardy question. “This city has the busiest airport in the world.” I point out that it also has a coca-cola bottling plant, a baseball stadium, bad traffic…_aaaaaaaaannnnddd_…😕🆒:D:p ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/19 "2017-12-19T00:41:09Z")
“Goddammit, Edna, I thought you mailed the check to the electric company.” ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742/20 "2017-12-19T02:34:11Z")
So many people affected, their holiday plans ruined in many cases. What of the people who had cheap, non refundable, connecting flights somewhere? What a nightmare! There must be sooo many frustrated and miserable people stuck there, it breaks my heart to think of it. I hope they get it fixed and up and running again soon. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlanta-worlds-busiest-airport-paralyzed/804742.md?page=2)