A power outage is disrupting flights at a John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal, the airport said Thursday.
The outage at Terminal 1 was caused by an electrical panel failure that resulted 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 accept inbound and outbound flights,” the statement said.
Other terminals are being used to accommodate the affected flights, and travelers should check with their airlines for flight status, the Port Authority said.
An Air New Zealand flight that was due to land at JFK at 5:40 p.m. ET Thursday was diverted back to its origin airport, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
Some arriving international flights were diverted to other East Coast airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Boston’s Logan International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport, JFK’s website showed.
Working to restore power
The Port Authority is trying to restore power at Terminal 1 by working around the circuits affected by the overnight fire, according to a Port Authority official with knowledge of the outage.
If this method of restoring the power to the terminal is not successful, they are prepared to use generator power to get Terminal 1 back online, the Port Authority source added.
The aircraft ramp around Terminal 1 has been closed and is scheduled to reopen Friday morning, according to a notice posted in a Federal Aviation Administration safety database.
The FAA referred questions about the incident to the airport operator. The Transportation Security Administration said: “TSA is eagerly awaiting the power situation to be resolved.”
Flight from New Zealand turns around mid-flight
Passengers on the Air New Zealand flight found themselves on a nearly 16-hour flight from Auckland back to Auckland after ANZ2 turned around because of the disruption at JFK.
“Diverting to another US port would have meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled services and customers,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.
Airline staff will be on hand to rebook passengers when they arrive back in Auckland.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”