CPA acting Executive Director Ed B. Mendiola told Variety yesterday that they “immediately took action.”
At about 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the airport runway lights suddenly went off, he said.
“We found out that one of the cut-off switches was burned during the thunderstorm, but we were able to fix it right away or before the scheduled flights started to come in,” he added. “We were able to identify the problem and we corrected it immediately.”
According to Mendiola, no flights were cancelled but one was delayed.
“We didn’t issue a [notice to airmen] because we immediately resolved the problem,” he said, adding that the notification is required if there is an emergency that is not expected to be addressed right away.
A Cape Air flight from Guam landed and took off as scheduled even without the runway lights, Mendiola said.
“It was still daylight…and there was no problem,” he added.
But a Freedom Air flight from Rota was a “little bit delayed” as the aircraft had to wait for the power to be restored at the runway.
Mendiola said it was the airline’s advice to its pilot to wait.
“[A Freedom Air] flight was delayed out of Rota but as soon as they found out that lights were on, they arrived at around 7 p.m,” he said.
Mendiola said that power for the runway lights was restored at past 6 p.m.
He said the problem was caused by nature which was “something out of CPA’s control.”
Mendiola said with the repair of CPA’s two main generators and the purchase of a new one, “this problem can be prevented from happening again.”
