Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Maryland recently experienced some heavy thunderstorms, which put a damper on airline flights. After a lightning strike hit the tower of the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) Airport—which many visitors to D.C. use as a hassle-free alternative to Reagan or Dulles—control tower Thursday, Sept. 12, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stopped all takeoffs and landings for several hours. The lightning strike caused one injury to a person in the tower, and, while less important than injury, countless people were waylaid in their travels.

The air traffic tower is now fully operational and got flight delay times down to fifteen minutes, which wasn’t too offensive, as long as travelers were smart enough to cushion their layover times. This is good news for passengers who were stranded in the airport for the night after many of the flights that had been scheduled before 8 p.m. were canceled or delayed.

The problem arose when a bolt of lightning struck the tower, knocking out the communications between the tower and the aircraft pilots. One must wonder, if they had the proper surge protectors from a reputable company like Minuteman Power Technologies, would the airport have been as handcuffed as it was? Industrial surge protectors are available to protect against such incidences as the one yesterday. At this time, it has not been disclosed as to whether or not proper precautions were taken prior to the storm.

The magnitude of the storm was causing delays in the surrounding area, but, after the lightning strike at BWI, flights coming in to BWI were diverted to other area airports, such as the somewhat far-flung Dulles International Airport, in Sterling, Virginia (just over 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C. and approximately one hour from BWI), and the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia (D.C., for all intents and purposes).