Ronald Reagan National Airport, one of the primary airports serving the Washington DC area, registered a power outage beginning at approximately 9:45 pm ET, forcing the airport to put at least some flight takeoffs on hold, and divert others, with many computer systems down. The airport said via Twitter that flights were operating, albeit slowly during the blackout. A little over an hour after lights went out, it said power was restored. The airport didn’t specify a reason for the outage.
Quartz’s White House correspondent Heather Timmons had flown into the airport and was by the luggage belts shortly before the outage. Lights flickered and the luggage belts stopped and started, before the power went out for good. Overhead back-up lights were on for about 20 minutes before also going out.
“Have a seat it’s going to be a while,” was one of the first PA announcements from the airport.
In the luggage area one man handed out luggage bag by bag, before saying, “I can’t do this all night.”