Outside Investigators To Probe Super Bowl Blackout
Why was there a power failure during Super Bowl XLVII? No one is certain yet, but Superdome authorities and a power provider have agreed to use an outside firm to investigate the cause of the power outage that stopped Sunday's game for 34 minutes.
SMG, the company that manages the stadium, and Entergy New Orleans, the facility's power provider, released a joint statement on Tuesday stating both parties had agreed to hire outside experts to investigate why half the lights in the stadium went out in the third quarter of the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.
SMG and Entergy said Sunday night that the outage was caused by a breaker tripped by an "abnormality," but they have yet to diagnose the glitch.
Records released on Monday indicated that tests conducted earlier this season showed a "chance of failure" at the facility, and that Entergy and the Superdome engineers were concerned that there could be a potential power problem. Nearly $1 million in subsequent improvements were made to the Superdome, but they didn't prevent the outage.
Increased media presence and Beyonce's halftime performance were not factors in the power failure, authorities said.