ATLANTA — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was one of thousands of people caught up in the massive power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Sunday.
Foxx was named Transportation Secretary under President Barack Obama and served in the post from 2013 to 2017.
Foxx took to Twitter Sunday to express his frustration over the situation.
“Total and abject failure here at (the Atlanta) Airport today,” Foxx said in the first of a series of tweets. “There is no excuse for lack of workable redundant power source. NONE!”
Total and abject failure here at ATL Airport today. I am stuck on @delta flight, passengers and crew tolerating it. But there is no excuse for lack of workable redundant power source. NONE! #atlairport #delta
— anthonyfoxx (@anthonyfoxx) December 17, 2017
Foxx blasted the airport over a lack of communication.
[PHOTOS: Power outage paralyzes Atlanta airport]
“Whatever the cause, it feels like this one was compounded by confusion and poor communication,” he said.
BTW, we have been sitting on Tarmac since approx. 2:20. Crew is doing all they can but this is insane.
— anthonyfoxx (@anthonyfoxx) December 17, 2017
Just moved from tarmac to a ramp and awaiting details on whether we’ll take stairs or other means to de-plane. Now the airlines have a backlog problem to deal with. Anyone who gets to their destination tonight (as opposed to tomorrow) will be lucky. Power still out at Term C.
— anthonyfoxx (@anthonyfoxx) December 17, 2017
We were waiting to de-plane at terminal C. We’re now moving to another terminal because C is apparently still dark. Still on plane for going on 5th hour.
— anthonyfoxx (@anthonyfoxx) December 17, 2017
The outage was reported at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Nearly six hours later, Georgia Power said the outage was caused by fire in an underground facility. It also damaged the backup system.
[READ: Passengers frustrated, confused by airport power outage: 'It's crazy in here']
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in a news conference late Sunday night that part of the delay in getting power restored was because power crews could not access the tunnels to get to the outage because they were filled with a poisonous gas.
Georgia Power said they expected to have all electricity restored by midnight.
Cox Media Group
