Short Power Outage at PGIA Cause Great Concern

While passengers at the Philip Goldson International Airport expressed frustration and concern after a brief power outage disrupted their movement through the terminal on Sunday morning, the authorities claimed the minor inconvenience was part of the plan.  BEL says the outage formed part of the testing and integration process for the commissioning of BEL’s Emergency Gas Turbine. During this switch, the company says short service interruptions can occur as the system is evaluated under real operating conditions; however, additional safeguards have since been implemented as testing continues. And while the outage affected commercial power in the airport area, Belize Air Traffic Control confirms that air traffic operations continued uninterrupted. The ATC says the outage was first recorded at 9:52 Sunday morning, following intermittent BEL power fluctuations earlier in the day. Backup generators for both the Radar Room and Control Tower activated immediately, keeping critical radar, communications and tower operations fully powered. ATC says there were no delays or disruptions to arriving or departing aircraft.

 

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