Chennai: Tension prevailed at Chennai airport when a sudden cable problem disrupted power for ab-out 12 minutes on TuÂeÂsÂday. Airport souÂrÂces saÂid about 250 passengers were in various process of checking in their baggage and waiting to clear security, when power failed.
“The passengers coÂuÂlÂdÂn’t take the lift or the escalator. So, they got a little tensed but then, when we learnt that alÂternate power would imÂmediately be arranÂgÂed, we requested them to wait for a few minutes,” said an airport employee, who added that the alternate power supply was also erratic initially affecting computer systems.
According to the official, passengers bound to Dubai (Emirates Airline) and Singapore (Jet Airways) were affected, as the in line baggage system was also affected.
“The belt that was used for ferrying Jet Airways flight baggage stopped working and we had to resort to manual scanning,” he added.
However, the official added that the delay in security checks and baggage movement did not affect the departure of the flights.
“Since, the power fluctuation continued for about 20 minutes, the passengers had to wait for some time before the lift and escalators could start operating again,” he said.
A statement from Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the interruption in power supply was due to failure of 110KV main power supply from the electricity board.
