Two planes diverted to Salt Lake

Two planes, carrying several hundred passengers bound for Las Vegas and Los Angeles, were diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport on Tuesday after a power outage at a radar facility in Southern California stalled air traffic.

All flights coming from or going to those cities were put on hold for at least an hour, causing scheduling problems for airlines all over the West, including minor delays at Salt Lake City International.

The outage at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center occurred shortly after 5:30 p.m., and power was restored about 90 minutes later, said Allen Kenitzer, a regional spokesman for the FAA.

"The generator kicked in and backup power was re-established," Kenitzer said.

The cause of the problem was not known.

The radar center is located north of Los Angeles in the high desert at Palmdale. It handles flights on long-distance routes at 38,000 feet or higher in Southern California and parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

Salt Lake City International Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said while every airline experienced delays, the biggest problem was trying to accommodate the two large international flights forced to land unexpectedly.

"We're happy to accommodate when we're needed, but it was a good thing they got back online as quickly as they did or we could have had bigger problems," she said.

An Air New Zealand flight carrying 404 passengers from New Zealand to Los Angeles was grounded but took off after about an hourlong wait, Gann said. The second diverted flight, a British Midlands International airbus carrying 243 passengers from London, sent airport officials scrambling for options.

The crew of the British Midlands jet were required to rest before taking off again because the pilots had reached their travel time limit, so the plane likely was grounded for the night. Gann said arrangements were being made to either find other flights on Delta planes, bring in another crew, house the passengers overnight or actually bus them to Las Vegas.

Other flights scheduled for Southern California were also diverted to airports in neighboring states, creating quite a baggage nightmare for many airports. Gann said Salt Lake's systems experienced minor difficulties.

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Contributing: The Associated Press

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com