'Nightmare' after power outage

Fire grounds passengers, flights at world's busiest airport

NEW YORK - One of the heaviest travel weeks of the year began with the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights on Sunday at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, where a power outage that lasted nearly 11 hours left passengers stranded in darkened terminals or in aircraft idling on tarmacs.

The early afternoon outage paralyzed operations at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport before power was finally restored at 11:45 pm on Sunday for flight operations, wreaking havoc on holiday travel plans for thousands of people hit by airline cancellations extending into Monday.