LAX Electricity Outage Brings Foot-Traffic On Moving Walkways
To A Halt

Panic ensues as foot traffic comes to an abrupt halt. Airport officials to start classes for city residents on how to use legs to get to flights.

Special to The LaLa Times
by Jason Tanamor

LOS ANGELES — One of the most hectic airports in the world lived up to its name when an electricity outage led many passengers to miss their scheduled flights. Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, saw its share of complaints when moving walkways halted during the four hour power outage and left passengers immobilized.

"This was the most traumatic experience I’ve ever dealt with! You have no idea what it’s like being stranded on a moving walkway," said Lindsey McMichael, who says her life virtually stopped when the electricity ceased on the "moving walkway." While she stood still, passengers walked by her and shook their heads in disgust. "These people must be out-of-staters!" McMichael cried as she looked at them in disbelief.

The electric mishap garnered mixed reactions from airport personnel and other travelers. "Sure, the moving walkways are there to speed up the traveling process," said Pat Watkins, a New York City resident who witnessed the whole scene. "But in the event that power goes down, passengers should certainly feel free to override the automatic walkways and start walking manually — I mean, come on! That’s one of the great benefits of having legs, you see."

This misunderstanding about the usage of moving walkways forced LAX to accommodate nearly 28 passengers (all from L.A.) with free hotel rooms and rental cars. "We hope future passengers will learn from this unfortunate experience," said Larry Morgan, LAX operations manager. "But next time we won’t be quite so lenient."