Power outage disrupted Terminal 1 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York



CNN

The power outage is disrupting flights at the terminal of John F. Kennedy International Airport, the airport said on Thursday.

The outage in Terminal 1 was caused by an electrical panel failure, resulting in a “small, isolated fire overnight that was immediately extinguished,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement.

“The power outage is currently impacting the terminal’s ability to receive inbound and outbound flights,” the statement said.

Other terminals are being used to receive affected flights, and travelers should check flight status with their airlines, the port authority said.

An Air New Zealand flight scheduled to land at JFK at 5:40 pm ET Thursday was diverted back to its origin airport, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Some incoming international flights were diverted to other East Coast airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Logan International Airport in Boston, and Washington Dulles International Airport. JFK website shown.

The Port Authority is trying to restore power to Terminal 1 by bypassing circuits damaged by the night fire, according to a Port Authority official with knowledge of the outage.

If this method of restoring power to the terminal fails, they are prepared to use generator power to reconnect Terminal 1, the source at the Port Authority added.

According to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s security database, the apron around Terminal 1 has been closed and is due to reopen on Friday morning.

The FAA referred questions about the incident to the airport operator. The Transportation Security Administration said, “TSA looks forward to resolving the power situation.”

Passengers on an Air New Zealand flight were on a nearly 16-hour flight from Auckland back to Auckland after an ANZ2 turned around due to a glitch at JFK Airport.

“Diverting to another US port would mean the plane would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled flights and customers,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.

Airline staff will be available to rebook passengers when they return to Auckland.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”