Atlanta airport loses power, trapping travelers in planes and terminals

Flying home for the holidays was more of a headache than usual for those traveling through the Atlanta airport on Sunday.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta — the busiest airport in the world — lost power on Sunday reportedly leaving some passengers trapped in planes and inside the airport terminals.

Image: Passengers sit stranded at the Atlanta airport, Dec. 17, 2017. Image: Passengers sit stranded at the Atlanta airport, Dec. 17, 2017.

Passengers sit stranded at the Atlanta airport, Dec. 17, 2017. Gant Laborde

The airport confirmed the outage on Twitter, and the FAA said they put a ground stop in place, which means they slowed or halted inbound air traffic.

Airport officials told NBC News that electrical issues at a Georgia substation “has impacted the power at the airport.”

Airport officials said Georgia Power sent repair teams to the scene to work on the issue, and they had been there since 1:30 p.m. ET.

Officials said only that a large portion of the airport had been impacted.

The FAA tower did not lose power during the incident.

According to NBC News affiliate WXIA, the outage reached the entire airport and affected the train connecting the terminals.

Wifi and cell service also weren’t fully operational, WXIA reported.

According to the airport, Hartsfield-Jackson serves approximately 275,000 passengers and averages 2,500 flight arrivals and departures every day.