Key takeaways:

• 10-hour blackout nearly stopped Airbus production
• Company was ‘few hours’ from complete datacenter shutdown
• One of worst power outages in Iberian history
• 4,00,000-volt power lines failed
• Production workers couldn't access critical documentation
• Manual workarounds kept operations limping
• Airbus operates facilities across 4 European countries

Airbus, Europe's aviation giant, came within hours of shutting down Spanish production facilities during a massive 10-hour power cut across Spain and Portugal in April, company officials revealed.

Blackout, among the worst in Iberian history, was triggered by voltage surges that overwhelmed electrical grids. It knocked out traffic lights, forced metro evacuations, and crippled Airbus's primary Spanish datacenter in Madrid, located within its Campus Futura aerospace hub.

Catherine Jestin, Airbus Executive Vice President of Digital, admitted the company was unprepared despite having backup generators. "We thought we were ready for an electrical issue, and in fact we were not," Jestin told The Register.

Critical fuel shortage threatened operations as diesel supplies ran dangerously low. Company scrambled to order more fuel, but suppliers were overwhelmed with emergency calls from other affected customers. "We were a few hours from a datacenter shutdown," Jestin warned.

Without datacenter access, production workers could not retrieve documentation or instructions. Warehouse operations faced collapse if automated parts retrieval systems went offline. "Probably we could have survived one day," Jestin added, noting manual workarounds were deployed.

Incident has triggered major improvements. Airbus is now ensuring adequate generator fuel reserves and priority supply contracts across facilities in Spain, France, Germany, and United Kingdom. Goal is maintaining operations for several days during massive blackouts without external fuel deliveries.

Portugal's national grid operator explained the rare event: extreme temperature variations in interior Spain caused anomalous oscillations in 4,00,000-volt lines, creating induced atmospheric vibration. These oscillations caused synchronization failures across interconnected European networks.

Source: Theregister.