Power Outage At Tampa International Airport Snarls Travel, Flights

TAMPA, FL — Tampa International Airport experienced a "significant" power outage Wednesday night, stranding travelers and, at one point, delaying all incoming and outbound flights, according to officials.

The outage happened shortly after 9 p.m., airport Vice President of Operations Adam Bouchard said during a news conference, causing disruptions to the main terminal, shuttles, and airsides A and F. At the outset of the outage, all incoming and outbound aircraft were affected, Bouchard said.

At a news conference held Thursday afternoon, officials said the outage may have been caused by a "weather-related event"; however, the cause remains under investigation.

Power was restored to all areas shortly after 2 a.m. The airport resumed normal operations Thursday morning, officials said. Meanwhile, crews remained onsite Thursday to conduct repairs to Airside F, according to a TECO spokesperson.

During the outage, some passengers were stranded on planes for up to two hours as airport officials and TECO Energy crews worked to restore power, according to reports.

"No one even knew what was going on, like why or anything," passenger Carol Horton told WFLA. "Then we went on Twitter, saw it was restored at Terminal F, but they didn't tell us to leave or anything."

On Twitter, user @bearpernell called the situation a "complete nightmare."

"This is a complete nightmare and unacceptable!!!" they wrote. "Our @VirginAirline
flight to London is significantly delayed with no information on when this is coming back online!"

John Tiliacos, the airport's executive vice president of operations and customer service, called the outage a "rare event" Thursday.

"This has never happened in our 50-year history," Tiliacos said during a news conference. "It is completely unacceptable and we will be taking the necessary steps to make sure it doesn't happen again."