Power outage cancels, diverts flights at NY airport

A power outage in a terminal of New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport stretched into a second day Friday after forcing some flights to be canceled or diverted, including one that was turned around and sent back to New Zealand after nearly making it to the U.S.

The airport operators said in a tweet late Thursday that Terminal 1, which handles some of the airport’s international flights, would remain closed Friday “due to electrical issues." The outage was caused by an electrical panel failure that led to a small fire, which was quickly extinguished, authorities said.

Yahayra Hunt, Stranded ITA passenger said "To be honest with you, this is the first time that I've faced this situation. I don't I've never been in this situation before. And I really thought that the airline was going to be able to at least respond with at least a hotel room to stay at, you know what I mean? Because it's not fair that we have to stay in the airport, with a whole bunch of luggage and a lot of people that need medications. You know what I mean? It's not fair." 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York's major airports, said it was working to accommodate affected flights at JFK’s four other active terminals. The agency did not provide any estimate of how many flights were canceled or diverted, but thousands of travelers were likely affected.