Large earthquake (magnitude 6.3) and associated power outage has closed Honolulu International Airport. Incoming flights are allowed to land, but nothing taking off at the moment.
Backup power at the airport has failed, and there’s no water or working toilets at the airport.
Live video currently being broadcast here: thehawaiichannel.com/video/4 … index.html
I’m curious-- for flights that are currently en-route, at what point is the decision made to turn around? Who makes that judgement call?
here are some fascinating flights - showing the turns back
flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL3
only one I could find fast =
Yep, same thing for this one: flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1
No deaths reported, and it looks like most of the chaos at HNL right now is due to the power outage, not actual damage- bodes well for the airport being fully functional again soon.
It is amazing, HNL is about 150 miles from the epicenter. It really puts the power of an earthquake into perspective.
Quite a few planes coming across the pacific lost their position reporting like American Airlines #73, but it appears as though the track caught up.
02:49PM 36.47 -126.93 455 34000
02:49PM 36.47 -126.93 440 34000
03:49PM 33.70 -135.22 439 34000
03:49PM 33.70 -135.22 449 34000
05:11PM 29.12 -145.62 440 34000
05:12PM 29.12 -145.62 438 34000
CNN reports that ALL Hawaiian airports are closed to all but incoming traffic. Lots of landslides also causing problems. Lucky there were no tsunamis from it. If my KSU Geomorphology class memory is accurate, I believe that to create a large enough tsunami to inflict lots of damage, the epicenter has to be much further off the coast than this.
BTW: Volcano, am I to take it for granted that you are from Hawaii? Just curious about your name and the source to which you provided a link.
planeaholic
Nope, not from Hawaii. But I study volcanoes (hence the name), and the link was the best coverage I could find earlier today.
And yep, this quake was a bit small to generate a tsunami-- even if it DID get a nice set of waves brewing, it would have been a bigger problem for islands further away from the epicenter (tsunamis get big when they move from deep water to shallow water, like when they approach a coastline).
I haven’t seen anything suggesting damage at HNL, although minor damage was apparently reported at Kahului Airport (OGG). Crazy that all the problems at HNL are just from the power outage!
Good thing Kona PHKO (closest to quake) is an outdoor terminal. No broken glass to clean up.
PHKO has lots of glass in the shops and restaurant / bar area.
There hasn’t been alot of info coming out of North Kona and Kohala / Waimea . . . makes you wonder how bad it was in that area. I’ve stayed in a house in a little town called Puako which was RIGHT on the coast by the epicenter of largest temblor . . . I can only image the conditons right in that area, less than 8 miles from a 6.6 in an area with solid rock which transmits the energy fairly well.
I stayed at the Hilton Waikaloa Village on the Kohala Coast which is right next to the epicenter. I would’ve expected a lot of damage but a quick check of their website led me to a press release saying there were no injuries and no structural damage.
You’re right wazzu, the “terminal” so to speak has little structure to break, so it’s not surprise that the airport remains open.
Note: That terminal picture is not mine, thats not my wife!
