A minivan driver crashed into a telephone pole near the Portland International Jetport on Saturday morning, causing a power outage that affected jetport check-in processes for a few hours and delayed one flight before service was restored.
Central Maine Power spokesperson Jon Breed said around 10:30 a.m. that the power was back on, a little over two hours after the crash was first reported.
A photo shared on social media by CMP earlier Saturday morning showed the white minivan that had crashed into the pole, splintering it near the base.
Portland police spokesperson Brad Nadeau said an investigation into the one-vehicle crash was underway. The driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries, Nadeau said.
Assistant jetport director Zachary Sundquist said staff switched to manual processes for checking in passengers during the outage, which briefly slowed down service.
“We are all caught up and back to normal operations now,” Sundquist said late Saturday morning.
One Southwest Airlines flight was delayed, Sundquist said.
“We had one Southwest flight that delayed in Baltimore that didn’t want to come in until they knew the power was back, but all other flights are operating on schedule,” he said.
Saturday’s outage came amid a busy travel weekend across the nation ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Airlines have said they expected Friday and Sunday to be the busiest travel days leading up to the holiday. The Transportation Security Administration says it expects to screen 40 million passengers nationwide through Jan. 2.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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