Super Bowl Blackout Solved

New Orleans power company Entergy claims faulty relay caused Super Bowl blackout.

New Orleans power company Entergy claims faulty relay caused Super Bowl blackout.


The mystery of the blackout at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII appears to have finally been solved.

According to the Associated Press (via the New York Daily News), Entergy, the official power supply company for the Superdome, accepted full responsibility for the power outage:

“The Superdome’s power company took the blame Friday for the Super Bowl blackout, saying the cause was a faulty device that had been installed in its switching gear and designed to prevent a failure of electric cables leading to the stadium.”

It goes on to say that the relay was installed as a way to protect the stadium from “cable failure between the company’s incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium.”

At the time of the power outage, it appeared that would be the only memorable part of Super Bowl XLVII. It occurred early in the third quarter, when the Baltimore Ravens were leading the San Francisco 49ers 28-6.

The game was delayed for 34 minutes, and when you add the 30-minute halftime show by Beyonce, it basically kept the game off the air for more than an hour save for Jacoby Jones’ 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half.

Read the rest of the article via our buddies at Bleacher Report.