Again



Back from Cleveland, where on Thursday afternoon we were driving along a road when suddenly I noticed that the traffic lights had died. It was 3 o'clock, in another hour the lights would dim around Lake Erie.



At the time we didn't know that. Turning on the radio we found out that the power outage was spreading. It wasn't terrorism though, we were also told. Of course they also said they didn't know what was causing it. Which begs the question of how do you not know that it isn't something if you don't know what it is?



Today, in case you missed it an air traffic control center lost power. Just for thirty seconds, half a minute. But a lot can happen in thirty seconds. Makes you wonder if someone is trying out a new computer set they just got to see how much havoc they can raise.



Here's the L.I. Traffic Control Center story, from Yahoo! News - L.I. Air Traffic Control Suffers Delay:



"NEW YORK - A 30-second power failure at an air traffic control center disrupted flights at major New York-area airports for about 30 minutes Sunday afternoon, authorities said.



The cause of the failure was under investigation but was not believed to be related to Thursday's blackout, Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) spokeswoman Arlene Salac said.



At 3:08 p.m., computers at the New York Terminal Approach Control Center on Long Island lost power when the power conditioning system broke down, Salac said.

Air traffic controllers who monitor flights in and out of the region's three major airports temporarily lost radar contact but not voice communication with aircraft, she said. "