April 20, 2004

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Los Angeles International Airport suffered its second power outage in eight days, although flights were not disrupted thanks to backup batteries.

A malfunctioning transformer was blamed for leaving some airport buildings without regular electricity for nearly two hours Monday. The cause of the electricity problems wasn't known.

"It's a little disturbing," said Bob Marks, regional vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "This sure seems like a fragile power infrastructure."

The airport's April 12 power failure lasted less than a second, but caused radar and communications systems at the control tower to malfunction and forced dozens of planes to be delayed. Officials suspect a bird landing on a wire was the cause.

Monday's blackout began at 11:31 a.m., causing lights to flicker in the airport. Although power returned immediately to some buildings, others remained on emergency lights until 1:19 p.m.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/04/20/airport.blackout.ap/index.html