A power outage at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest hub in the world, triggered delays and cancellations across the country, including those that affected hundreds of passengers at Bay Area airports.
At least 14 flights on Sunday were canceled at San Francisco International Airport, three at Mineta San Jose International and two at Oakland International, according to airport officials.
Power has since been restored at the airport, but travel headaches lingered into Monday. At least five flights — three arriving and two departing — were canceled at San Francisco International as of Monday morning, according to airport officials. At least one flight between San Jose and Atlanta was also canceled. No cancellations have been reported at Oakland International.
Some passengers at SFO on Sunday were already strapped into their seats then had to deboard their planes because of the sudden outage across the country.
"They de-planed us," said Delta Airlines passenger Nicole Fay, who was traveling with her 2-year-old. "We were only on the actual plane for maybe 30 minutes."
A pile of luggage could be seen in Delta’s baggage claim area.
Fay said her husband dropped them at the airport at 10 a.m. Sunday and returned at 3 p.m. to pick them up again.
Frank Shmays was headed home to Atlanta and had to de-plane after his flight was delayed then canceled.
"I feel terrible for the folks that are stuck there," Shmays said. "At least we have power, so I have lots of sympathy for those that are stuck without power."
Local
In Atlanta, passengers had to exit planes and wait on the tarmac because jet bridges weren’t working. Inside the Atlanta terminal there was darkness as thousands of people waited for word on what to do next.
A fire at an underground electrical facility was the cause of the outage.
More than a thousand flights were canceled heading into and out of Atlanta.
