Major delays at Sacramento airport after AT&T cable cut

Sacramento International Airport experienced significant flight delays Thursday after an AT&T cable was intentionally cut, cutting off internet service for at least two major airlines, the Sacramento International Airport said.

The outage — which temporarily halted check-in services, particularly for Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines — occurred just before 1:20 a.m., disrupting flights for several hours, airport spokesman Scott Johnston said by phone.

At Southwest Station, hundreds of people waited in long lines to check in before internet service was restored and normal operations resumed Thursday afternoon, Johnston said. He added that the service team determined that the cable, which is located about 2.5 miles from the airport, was “intentionally cut.”

An AT&T spokeswoman said in an email that the company “has restored Internet and wireless service to affected customers.”

Amar Gandhi, spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, said the cable — about the width of a garden hose and attached to a telephone pole — had been cut cleanly in one place about four or five feet off the ground in a manner he said appeared to be “precise.” “Very” and “very purposeful.”

“It wasn't like it was a loose hanging wire,” he added. “It took a certain level of knowledge and/or experience to know what to cut and how to do it.”

Authorities said they had no suspect, adding they were looking into video footage and following up on evidence. They did not provide any information regarding a possible motive.

The FBI's Sacramento field office said in a statement that it was “investigating the communications outage at Sacramento International Airport” with the Sheriff's Office and could not comment further.

The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services is “also monitoring the situation,” office spokeswoman Amy Palmer said by phone.