Wild weather has sparked a power outage at Perth Airport, throwing travellers’ plans into disarray for the third time in 48 hours.
The airport confirmed the outrage on Tuesday afternoon due to damage to power lines caused by severe weather in the Western Australian capital in the last 24 hours.
Western Power crews are scrambling to fix the outage but currently can’t give an estimated restoration time.
The outage has impacted on lighting in the terminal and baggage carousels unable to operate, leaving frustrated passengers left literally in the dark.
Flight information boards are blank while dozens of flights are grounded on the tarmac, delayed and cancelled.
‘Perth Airport will be delaying all outbound services scheduled to depart before 7.30pm,’ the airport tweeted on Tuesday night.
‘All inbound flights currently in the air will be able to arrive safely. All scheduled flights into Perth which have not yet departed will be delayed until further notice.
‘Passengers should expect delays/cancellations. The safety of everyone who works in or is traveling through our airport remains our highest priority. We apologize to passengers and customers for any inconvenience.’
Footage posted online shows the terminal plunged into darkness with arriving passengers relying on phone lights to track their luggage being manually brought into the terminal due to the bag carousels not working.
Departing passengers faced lengthy delays in checking in luggage due to a power chaos (pictured, affected travelers at Perth Airport on Tuesday)
By late Tuesday afternoon, Perth Airport was plunged into darkness with no word on when the outage will be fixed
‘Sitting in the dark cold boarding gate at Perth Airport while starving. An international airport without sufficient back up power,’ one woman tweeted.
Other photos show the arrival and departure flight board blank with no information available.
‘Massive crowd in airport. Departure gate closed and no communication. Been here for three hours,’ one traveler told Daily Mail Australia.
A concerned relative tweeted: ‘My 80 year old mother is on QF943 from Brisbane. It’s in the air but no idea if it can land.’
6PR listeners have told the radio station the outage has impacted on passengers trying to get through security checkpoints and those leaving the car park.
Arriving passengers are stranded on the tarmac as air bridges cannot be deployed for them to exit.
‘They can get stairs to us but no one knows how to open the doors. Looks like there are also other plans that are stuck,’ one woman arriving from Broome told WA Today.
Those departing are also affected as their luggage can’t be loaded onto planes while pilots trying to take off have no communication line with the airport.
The arrival and departure flight boards at Perth Airport were blank as frustrated passengers demanded answers
Western Power is unable to give a time of when power will be restored (pictured, Perth Airport plunged into darkness on Tuesday)
Dozens of other passengers are queued up outside, unable to get inside the airport.
It’s currently unknown how long the airport power outage will last but there are unconfirmed reports it may take 6-8 hours to repair.
Western Power says it’s waiting an estimated restoration time from repair crews and will provide an update on its website when available.
It comes as wild weather continues to batter the city with the chance of a thunderstorm and damaging winds possible with winds westerly 50 to 70 km/h.
‘Strong westerly winds are whipping up heavy surf conditions with swells reaching 8m off Rottnest Island this morning,’ the Bureau of Meteorology said.
‘These winds will continue through until late Wednesday, with sea conditions not set to ease until Thursday.’
It’s the third time in 48 hours travelers across the nation have been affected by outages and delays.
A nationwide computer glitch left thousands of Qantas passengers stranded on tarmacs and in airport lounges
Hours later, hundreds of travelers at Sydney and Melbourne Airports faced long queues, delays and cancellations on Monday morning due to operational reasons.
Perth Airport has confirmed it has been impacted by a power outage which will affect flights
Travelers’ plans were thrown into chaos at Perth Airport on Tuesday afternoon (pictured, passengers at the airport earlier this year)
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