Iris Tien

Atlanta power outage a ‘wake-up call’ for nation’s airports

By David Wickert and J. Scott Trubey  |  December 18, 2017

The fire that shut down power at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was a wake-up call for airports across the country, experts say. Though the airport and Georgia Power are still investigating the cause, aviation experts questioned why the parts of the backup electrical system serving the airport were located so close to the main power system – close enough that both were disabled by a single fire.

“In the 40 years or so the airport has been here, we’ve never had anything like this happen,” airport communications director Reese McCranie said.

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Iris Tien, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Georgia Tech, has studied redundant electrical and other systems. She said there needs to be a balance between keeping backup systems close enough to make repairs easy and far enough away to make sure they can’t be compromised along with the main system.

Cost is also a factor.

“You have to be redundant while still being financially feasible,” Tien said.

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“The redundant systems we put in place we believe would have covered a power outage,” McCranie said. “Because of yesterday’s power outage, we’re reviewing that very closely. We’re looking at possible remedies.”