A power failure on Sunday, 3 June, resulted in the suspension of flight operations at Hamburg Airport from 10:00 a.m. until closing time. Today, Monday, 4 June, flight operations resumed on schedule at 6:00 a.m.
The power failure was caused by damaged insulation of a copper cable. This damage resulted in a powerful short circuit which also affected numerous adjacent cables. The short circuit occurred in the airport’s block-type thermal power station supply line.
Suspension of flight operations required due to European regulations
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) requires two independently powered electricity supply systems for flight operations areas. With the public electricity network and its own block-type thermal power station, the airport fulfils this requirement. “Within our own power station, there are more generators than are required, thereby providing us with a backup solution. The short circuit, however, hit in the heart of the power station, taking the facility completely out of service, so that only one supply was available for the runway system,” explained Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport.
After the airport’s engineers located the cause of the short, 42 cables with a total length of 540 meters were replaced. This meant that the block-type thermal power station was operating stably again from 3 a.m.
“We greatly regret the inconvenience for passengers and airlines and fully appreciate the consequences. This was an extreme situation for passengers, airlines and the airport,” says Michael Eggenschwiler.
Current information on flights being operated can be found in the Flights & Flying / Arrivals and Flights & Flying / Departures sections of the Hamburg Airport website, www.hamburg-airport.de/en.
Passengers affected by delays or cancellations are requested to contact their airline directly for more information.