Passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport scramble to resume their travels after an electrical fire shut down the world's busiest airport for more than 10 hours. AP
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A broke its iconic closed-on-Sundays rule to dish up sandwiches to passengers stranded at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in its hometown over the weekend.
A major power outage halted flights and stranded tens of thousands of customers on Sunday. And that night, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed phoned the sandwich chain.
"The mayor called about 10 p.m. and asked for assistance," Chick-fil-A said in a statement. "We immediately mobilized staff and team members who live and work near the airport, and they are making sandwiches and delivering them to the EOC (emergency operations center)."
Chick-fil-A famously closes its stores on Sundays — even its location inside the Atlanta Falcon's stadium, which stays dark most game days. But Sunday wasn't the first time it offered aid on the sabbath: Orlando-area workers opened kitchens to distributed sandwiches in the wake of last year's Pulse nightclub shooting.
The airport posted photos overnight on Monday of Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy and officials distributing sandwiches and bottled water to passengers after the airport's power was restored.
Reed, the city's mayor, said 2,000 total meals went out to weary travelers.