Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

We could begin with the, “Why did the chicken cross the road” jokes, but it seems like one form of pesky poultry caused quite a bit of trouble that’s anything but a laughing matter.

We’ve heard of some pretty crazy animalistic power outages in the past – from cats to deer – but this time it involves a “wild chicken” that caused a brief, 30-minute to one hour power outage at Maui, Hawaii-based Kahului Airport last week after wandering into a transformer at the airport’s rental car area.

While the outage reportedly didn’t affect the airport’s tower and air traffic control operations, it did disable security screenings – forcing them to be done manually; caused at least four planes to use mobile stairs to unload passengers because jet bridges weren’t operational; forced electronically-controlled doors to be hand-operated; knocked out power for nearby rental car companies; and knocked out power at a nearby Courtyard Maui Kahului Airport hotel and Kmart.

NPR (News - Alert) reported from Maui News, which explained officials essentially stating that “the situation was complicated by a short in the electrical system that would normally convey generator power to the airport.”

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Hawaii, the first thing that comes to mind is vacation. This sunny, tropical, highly-visited state boasts over one million permanent residents, which is highly influenced and impacted by tourist and military populations. Thankfully, however, this power outage didn’t delay any major flights, so travelers of the island were able to say “Aloha” to the state on time (depending, of course, on their ascent or descent).

What seems a little comical about this situation is the underlying concern of this story: the over-population of feral chickens in Hawaii.