Power Outage Causes Severe Flight Disruptions at New York’s JFK Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1 remains closed as of Friday due to ongoing electrical issues, the airport confirmed:

According to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com, roughly 15 percent of flights in and out of JFK were delayed on Thursday. As of Friday morning, the airport has already experienced more than 100 delays.

Travelers flying into and out of the airport should check their flight status with their airline prior to arriving at the airport.

John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1 experienced a power outage on Thursday preventing it from accepting inbound and outbound flights, the New York airport tweeted.

The outage at Terminal 1 was the result of an electrical panel failure that sparked a “small isolated fire overnight that was immediately extinguished,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey explained in a statement to CNN.

Affected flights are reportedly being diverted to other terminals that are able to accommodate the extra traffic, so anyone traveling through JFK is advised to check their flight status with their airline.

Some inbound international flights were diverted to other East Coast airports, including New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, Boston’s Logan International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.

An Air New Zealand flight, however, wasn’t so lucky. Having originally been scheduled to land at JFK at 5:40 p.m. local time, the plane was directed to turn around and head back to its origin point. That means passengers are now having to sit through an almost 16-hour flight back to Auckland after having just endured one already. And, as of 5:45 p.m. ET, it’s also running nearly an hour late, according to FlightAware’s data

“Diverting to another US port would have meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled services and customers,” the airline told CNN in a statement. “We apologize for the inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience and understanding.”

The Port Authority said that it’s working to restore Terminal 1’s power by rerouting connections around the circuits that were affected by last night’s fire. an unnamed Port Authority official with knowledge of the situation said that, if such attempts prove unsuccessful, they’re prepared to bring the terminal back online using a standalone generator.

The aircraft ramp at Terminal 1 is shut down as of Thursday but is scheduled to reopen Friday morning, according to a notice posted in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety database.

The FAA is referring all questions about the situation to JFK’s airport operator, while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plainly commented, “TSA is eagerly awaiting the power situation to be resolved.”