Modern Fragility: One Fire Shuts Down America’s Busiest Airport for Half a Day

Jim Geraghty

Yesterday’s intolerable mess at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport would be a little bit easier to accept if it had been cyber-terrorism. If ISIS or al-Qaeda or the North Koreans or someone had deliberately shut down the power and backup systems at the country’s busiest airport, we would have an outside source and an intentional action to blame. We would be discussing how to prevent the next cyber-sabotage, whether existing systems at other airports and critical infrastructure were secure enough, and how to ensure everyone knew what to do in this sort of emergency.

Instead, it appears to be the usual cascading mistakes and system failures.

Georgia Power said it believes a failure of its equipment may have started a fire that led to a massive power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport causing more than 1,000 flight cancellations Sunday, disrupting flights for travelers from around the world.

“While evaluation of the incident is ongoing, Georgia ...

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Freedom Isn’t Free

David French

Editor’s Note: As part of National Review Institute’s End-of-Year Appeal, NRI fellows are sharing words of wisdom and inspiration. Today, David French explains NRI’s mission as a conservative...

Trump’s Refusal to Embrace the Norms of Presidential Behavior Will Hurt His Party

Jay Cost

Trump’s Refusal to Embrace the Norms of Presidential Behavior Will Hurt His Party

A Solid Accomplishment on Taxes

The Editors

As we hoped, the Republican tax legislation improved as it moved through Congress. Harmful ideas such as eliminating the adoption tax credit were abandoned. Some tax relief for the working poor...

A Better Way to Give Trump More Judgeships to Fill

Josh Blackman

Recently, a prominent conservative law professor and his former student created a stir when they urged Republicans to create over 200 new judgeships for President Trump to fill. This proposal, I...

The Way Forward on Federal Mental Health Policy

D. J. Jaffe

Last Thursday, the Trump administration issued the first iteration of its congressionally mandated Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) report. Titled “The...

Where Zimbabwe Went Wrong

Helen Andrews

Editor’s Note: The following piece appears in the December 18, 2017 issue of National Review. One of the more poignant moments in the story of African decolonization was the small riot staged...

Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45

Peter Caddick-Adams

"[Caddick-Adams] illuminates the Battle of the Bulge until he has run out of facets. He layers context and connections with an inclusive style. Both the reader who knows nothing or little of this battle and the maven steeped in Bulgeiana will come away...educated and sated. Snow and Steel is a treasure."
- Michael Dolan, Senior Editor, World War II Magazine

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