US/CANADA. Airports in the north eastern US and Canada were badly affected by yesterday’s devastating power blackouts in New York and other cities across the north eastern US and Canada.
The blackout stranded thousands of air travellers, as planes were grounded and landings were prevented at New York’s three major airports and several others.
The worst power blackout in the history of North America, which has so far not been linked to terrorism as first thought, stranded thousands of domestic and international travellers across the continent.
”We’re not talking one airport here, we’re talking about a half a dozen reasonably large ones,” Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Traveler Coalition, which represents corporate travel departments, told The New York Times. ”When something goes wrong at La Guardia or Detroit, it causes gridlock in the entire system.”
The cut caused partial or total closures in many airports, New York, Newark, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Islip, Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester and Erie.
Just before 6.00pm several international flights were cancelled out of San Francisco. Even flights to Los Angeles, far from the centre of the blackout, were delayed.
While the loss to businesses, such as duty free, was considerable, the trade will be relieved that, as seems likely, the act was not caused by terrorism. But the fear that for a long time gripped America yesterday, underscored the latent anxiety that exists in the modern, uncertain world of post 11 September 2001.
Further details as they become available.
