06/06/2014

Bristol Airport Fire Causes Serious Power Failure

A fire at at Bristol Airport caused a serious power failure, leaving the terminal in darkness, about 2,000 people stranded and knock-on disruptions and delays.

It is understood that the airports backup generators failed after a fire broke out in a distribution panel at about 03.00.

The generator failure led to a complete loss of power throughout the terminal, with flights being grounded and passengers stranded.

Power was partially recovered three hours later.

Robert Sinclair, the airport chief executive said he hoped the operation systems would be back to normality by mid-morning.

One of the most chaotic consequences was the failure of the airport's baggage belt system, meaning the luggage has to be processed manually. "We are trying to process as much as we can manually but it is much slower progress than it normally would be," spokesman James Gore said.

(CVS/MH)

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