An unscheduled power outage resulted in the Griffith Airport terminal and car park becoming blanketed in darkness last Friday.
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Council staff and passengers experienced a testing time when a series of issues arose with what council described as unfortunate timing.
Rex staff notified council the back-up generator had failed to start following the outage, shortly before its flight was scheduled to land at the airport.
Council’s director, infrastructure and operations, Phil King said that the generator was set up to automatically kick in five-to-10 seconds after a power outage occurs.
“The generator is large enough to power the terminal building, runway lights and the wind indicator lights,” Mr King said.
“The practice at the airport is to start the ‘gen set diesel motor’ every month … this keeps oil circulating through the motor.”
The mains power came back on, seconds before the Rex flight’s scheduled touch down resulting in the generator shutting down and plunging the airport back into darkness.
The mains power then flowed back into the airport, illuminating the runway shortly after.
The Rex pilots aborted the landing attempt due to the lights going out a second time and returned to their holding pattern.
During this time the mains power stabilised and a successful landing was made.
Griffith City mayor, Councillor John Dal Broi said he sympathises with those passengers on board that plane on Friday night.
“To come down to land and only have to go back up again would have been so annoying. Those passengers spent as much time on the plane circling Griffith as they did for the whole trip from Sydney,” Councillor Dal Broi said.
Mr King said the batteries in the generator were replaced on Saturday morning and testing was completed to ensure the generator was fully operational.
“Steps have been taken to place the batteries on a regular replacement schedule to minimise the risk this from ever happening again,” Mr King said.
“The generator had been operational already this month … on Friday night council staff responded as quickly as they could and were able to organise an electrician to attend to the problem.”
Council said it recognises the professionalism of the REX air hostesses looking after their passengers during the difficult situation.
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