July 14, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A power outage at a Northwest Airlines facility Wednesday caused dozens of cancellations and delays for its departing flights nationwide.
Northwest spokeswoman Mary Stanik said there was a power failure about 8:15 a.m. at a facility in suburban Eagan, near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The power failure created a computer problem, she said, but declined to give detail.
Flights that already had taken off were not affected, and power was restored in about 45 minutes, she said.
Northwest told the Federal Aviation Administration that the problem had been fixed and flights were expected to return to normal during the day, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.
In all, 60 Northwest flights were canceled, plus 150 flights on its subsidiary carriers, Mesaba and Pinnacle, Stanik said. She had no information on how many more flights were delayed.
The outage caused tie-ups on the ground because landing flights could not go to their gates until the outbound Northwest flights could leave.
Northwest is based in Eagan, across the Minnesota River from the airport, and the airport is the airline's most important hub. The airline also has hubs at Detroit and Memphis, Tenn.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJR4ASNWD.html