Countywide : Runway Blackout Caused by Regulator

An electrical problem triggered by improvements on a lighting system made earlier in the afternoon caused the sudden blackout on John Wayne Airport’s main runway Wednesday night, an airport spokeswoman said Thursday.

An overburdened or malfunctioning electrical regulator caused the two-hour blackout, which started at 8:26 p.m. Wednesday and disrupted 12 flights, spokeswoman Paula Ware said. Regulators control the amount of power going through lines, she said.

Wednesday’s blackout was the second closing of the 5,700-foot commercial runway due to technical problems in the past five weeks. On June 14, the runway was inoperative for five hours, disrupting 129 flights because new asphalt failed to dry on the runway and had to be scraped off.

Ware said the electrical work that led to Wednesday night’s problem was done to bring John Wayne’s runway into compliance with new federal guidelines that require lighted signs on airfields. Though the electricians tested the regulators before leaving for the day, she said, they could not detect the problem.

Eight incoming flights were diverted to other airports or delayed in landing, while three departing flights were postponed because of Wednesday’s blackout, the first at John Wayne in four years. An American Eagle shuttle to Los Angeles International Airport was canceled and the passengers bused north to LAX.

Passengers whose planes landed at LAX instead of John Wayne were bused back to Orange County by the individual airlines.