Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela just emerged from a rough night after it was forced to send inbound flights to other airports. Four main power sources for its runway lights were knocked out, effectively making the airport unusable.

The outage lasted eight hours, and planes heading to Caracas had to be rerouted to airports in Porlamar, Maracaibo, Curacao and San Juan.

According to a statement issued by the airport operator, 23 outbound flights, and 20 inbound flights were impacted. The fault was eventually located in part of the wiring for the landing lights on runway 10-28. At 3:45AM, engineers located the fault and power was restored. Because the fault was in the runway cables, it was not possible to restore power using backup systems.

By Wednesday morning, nine rerouted international flights were scheduled to arrive, most with a 12 hour delay.

Back in 2008, we reported on a large power outage in Stockholm that cut the power in parts of the city center after a rat entered a signal box, and more recently, passengers on the prestigious Queen Mary 2 lost power after a catastrophic explosion in the engine room.

Just goes to show how important it is to carry a flashlight and some backup power to keep your phone going - you never know when you'll find yourself in total darkness stuck at the airport.

[Photo: Flickr/Slash_)

Filed under: Venezuela, Airlines, Airports, Central America