Late last night power was fully restored to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport after an electrical switch was reportedly destroyed earlier in the day due to fire.
Passengers roamed the airport in the dark for hours while others were stranded in planes on the runway or tarmac with nowhere to go.
Thousands of flights were canceled or diverted causing a massive domino-effect across the country, given that Atlanta serves as a major hub for Delta.
And now the big question is whether to what extent other airports across the country are prepared for a rather small incident.
Experts are now pointing out the obvious: the international news of Atlanta’s calamity is certain to have caught the attention of terrorists across the globe who now recognize that crippling a nation’s travel doesn’t require an elaborate airline bombing…a simple basement fire will do the trick just as well.
Well done, Homeland Security.
Here’s more from Daily Beast…
If a terrorist wanted to find the most vulnerable point in America’s airport network they could not have hoped for a better guide than what just happened at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.
Just after 1 p.m. Sunday the whole airport, the world’s busiest, went dark. Thousands of flights were disrupted. For many hours nobody in authority attempted to explain—or even seemed able to explain—what had happened.
Just imagine this is a classic plan for phase one of a terrorist attack: Render the target blind. None of the defenses are operational. Thousands of people are trapped in restricted space without directions about how they can find an exit.
As chaos spreads nobody knows who turn to for information. The communications blackout is as complete as the power blackout.
Given this situation a small band of suicide bombers could roam freely and commit mayhem and massacre on an unprecedented scale.
Initial responses as the story broke were that the holiday season travel would be disrupted for days. That is true. The ripple effect of the paralyzed airport will be worldwide as thousands of international connections are canceled.
