Dig-ins happen regularly with underground electrical utilities, especially in areas of ongoing construction. Excavation contractors can screw up, dig right on top of the bluestake or sometimes the bluestake is incorrect.
I imagine the airport has redundant feeders, but a bad dig-in can take out two feeders if they’re in the same trench. The airport probably has back-up generators, but it would be unusal for the airport to have 100 percent of their load backed up.
I’ ve worked for a major electric utility company for 25 years I handle hospitals, big data centers, two air force bases and airports. Sometimes sh*t happens: redundant feeders get cut into, high fault current damages other equipment, customer’s generators won’t start, etc. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. I doubt there is any terrorist or other bad actor activities related to this outage.
Thank you for your input. That is very helpful. You have to admit though, the timing is suspicious.