ST. THOMAS - Workers have not diagnosed the cause of the King Airport runway light outage Tuesday night that delayed three in-bound flights.
The outage, which darkened the runway from 8:45 to 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, was uncommon, but it is not an FAA violation, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We certainly were notified of it," Bergen said.
The airport is the V.I. Port Authority's property. The authority maintains the runway and the airport, though the FAA manages runways at some airports, Bergen said.
Port Authority engineers and maintenance staff members continue troubleshooting why the electrical breaker switched off Tuesday night.
Two flights from San Juan were diverted and one American Airlines flight was delayed for one hour and 20 minutes.
The power failure had no effect on the airport's power supply.
Port Authority Acting Executive Director David Mapp said the runway lights outage was the airport's first.
He said the lights have remained on, as needed, since Tuesday night.
Port Authority engineers informed Mapp on Thursday that the cause for the outage still is unknown, he said.
Friday, Mapp said the electricians continued the inspection.
Port Authority Engineering Director Dale Gregory said the subcontractor who installed the lights had checked to determine whether recent system upgrades were to blame. The project contractor, V.I. Paving, hired the subcontractor, Gregory said.
"We checked that, and that didn't have anything to do with it," Gregory said.
He said that the inspection continues.
"They are checking and re-checking the system," Gregory said.
Mapp said the authority also has notified its airport consultant, URS Corporation, to help troubleshoot the outage.
"We have scheduled the electrical engineers to perform a complete assessment of the electrical system at the King Airport next week," Mapp said.
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