Power at Oakland Airport being restored after outage causes holiday travel nightmare

Holiday travelers are paused in the security line as they await updates about a power outage at Oakland International Airport that is affecting flights. Holiday travelers are paused in the security line as they await updates about a power outage at Oakland International Airport that is affecting flights. Photo: Andrew Kornblatt / @akornblatt Photo: Andrew Kornblatt / @akornblatt Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Power at Oakland Airport being restored after outage causes holiday travel nightmare 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Holiday travelers at Oakland International Airport got a surprise Tuesday night amidst the heavy rain fall, when several people on social media reported the power was out at the airport.

The power outage was confirmed by spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor just before 7 p.m. Taylor said the airport was still working to diagnose the issue, but that backup power generators were being used.

By about 8:16 p.m., Taylor said that power to the terminal was "nearing full restoration" in an email.

"Oakland International Airport is investigating a power disruption affecting terminal and flight operations this evening. Security screening was temporarily halted but has resumed," read the statement. "Flight arrivals continued during the outage, however, some departures were delayed."

Tori Sepand, who was flying from Seattle to Oakland when the power outage occurred at the airport, said: "It was pretty scary trying to land because it felt like we were speeding through the air towards the ground and then we had to abort mission.

"It felt like we were heading toward the tarmac for a while pretty fast, couldn't see anything, and then we were told we couldn't land and had to head to L.A. Pilot said other flights said there was horrible turbulence and then we had to abort for safety."

An update to the airport's Twitter page clarified that screening checkpoints are open, but that sporadic outages were still occurring as of 8:25 p.m., while "power has been restored to majority of the terminal."

Travelers were urged to check with their airline to get an update on flight status.

The power outage was first noted on social media about 6:30 p.m., when several people took to Twitter to share the information.

Andrew Kornblatt was on his way to visit family in Texas for Thanksgiving when the power went out, he said in an interview with SFGATE. Over an hour after the outage, he said that the X-ray machines and scanners at security were back on, but TSA officials at his security line still weren't letting people through.

Although electricity was reportedly restored to other terminals, Southwest Airlines travelers such as Kornblatt said they were still not moving as of 8:40 p.m.

"Many are talking about just leaving and not traveling," Kornblatt said, noting that the crowd was getting antsy while they waited to hear news of their flights.

"There are a lot of unhappy people here on their phones," he added.

Dianne de Guzman is a Digital Editor at SFGATE. Email: dianne.deguzman@sfgate.com

All the power just went out in the Oakland Airport. That was 7.4 out of 10 terrifying. — Kyle Madson (@KyleAMadson) November 27, 2019