The air-traffic control tower at Martha’s Vineyard Airport was sidelined for a day after a lightning strike hit the transformer powering the tower. Several Cape Air flights were canceled as a result, and a charter flight was delayed.
Geoff Freeman, airport director, said a transformer struck during last Sunday’s storm had been powering the general aviation building, the commercial terminal, and the tower. But the tower was not connected to the airport’s emergency generators like the other two buildings, so it was inoperable after its backup batteries ran out a few hours later.
The storm also contributed to canceled flights.
“The weather was not good for flying that day,” Freeman said, highlighting the heavy rain and fog.
Eversource didn’t readily have a transformer to replace the damaged one, so it had to ship one to the Island on Monday, Nov. 10. Power was restored after the tower’s working hours were over for the day. The power company also brought an extra transformer to keep at its Oak Bluffs facility.
The tower was working again on Tuesday the 11th. The tower itself was not hit, and Freeman said there were no injuries in the “very rare” incident of the transformer being hit by lightning.
Still, there are risks of the tower being taken out of operation again.
Freeman said the Federal Aviation Administration, which owns the tower, had declined to connect its facility to the airport’s emergency generator when the airport terminal was built in 1999. Freeman said he’s posed the possibility of hooking up the tower to the emergency generators to the FAA, but they have not responded.
“It’s unfortunate they chose not to connect an emergency generator to their facility,” Freeman said.
The airport is preparing to undergo major terminal upgrades, but connecting the tower to its emergency generators would need to be done in a separate project with the FAA.
Thanks for the thorough report on island healthcare.
Comments are closed.