JFK Airport would like you, please, to forget this week. False reports of shots fired Sunday night in JFK Airport unleashed mass panic and forced the evacuation of Terminals 8 and 1. Just after recovering from that scare, the power went out Tuesday afternoon in Terminal 8, freaking out, and then frustrating, passengers as a six-hour blackout tied up some flights, shut down computers and baggage carousels and, cruelly, knocked out the air-conditioning in the middle of August.
A few small blackouts sparked a prolonged power outage around 2 p.m., as two of four transformers overloaded. The power mostly came back on around 8:30 p.m, though crews were still trying to fix some lingering problems. American Airlines, which flies out of Terminal 8, had to cancel or delay some flights, with cascading issues into Wednesday. According to CBS 2, some flights did take off, but people had to depart without their luggage because bags had to be screened manually. Add to that the stormy weather in the area, which caused additional travel snafus.
Meanwhile, in another part of Queens, La Guardia was heard laughing, “Third-world airport, you say?”
