Fortunately, it was a clear, sunny day (rather than the proverbial dark, stormy night) over the Northeast when the electrical power gridwork gave up the ghost at 4:11 p.m. on August 14. Though 9/11 jitters surfaced, initial fears of terrorism were quickly calmed. U.S. and Canadian power providers were pointing fingers at each other long before most affected areas had their lights back on. The cost of the three-day (at its worst) blackout has been pegged at north of $1 billion in lost business and wasted food, but airlines took the brunt of the beating in aviation circles. General aviation–except at some of the major airline airports, such as New York La Guardia–escaped with minimal fiscal damage.
Good VFR conditions contributed as much as anything to the ease with which most of business aviation handled the “great blackout of 2003.” Airlines suffered mightily from the groundstops at major airports. An estimated 700 flights were canceled. The lack of backup power for terminal facilities and all the sophisticated new security hardware got most of the blame, since airside airport infrastructure is required under Part 139 to have backup power at airports with scheduled airline service. The few hang-ups at business aviation airports came, similarly, from lack of non-aviation infrastructure, such as rental-car counters with dead computers.
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