A short circuit caused lights at Kahului Airport's main runway to go out for eight hours Wednesday, forcing officials to divert five incoming flights from Maui to Honolulu, a state transportation spokeswoman said yesterday.

The lights were back on by 11 p.m. Wednesday and the diverted planes resumed their scheduled flights to Maui, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Tammy Mori said.

Two outbound flights from Maui were also affected, Mori said.

"The airport authority fixed the system late last night, so everything is fine now," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said yesterday. Gregor said the lights were fixed at 11:20 p.m.

The lights at 7,000-foot-long Runway 2 went out at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Mori said.

Some flights were able to continue to operate, using Runway 5-23, which is 5,000 feet long. Interisland flights were not affected. But some aircraft were not able to land on the shorter runway because of their size and landing requirements, Mori said.

Planes that use the longer runway are at least as large as Boeing 757s, which hold between 186 and 279 passengers.

All airlines arriving and departing Kahului Airport were notified of the runway problem, Mori said.

A passenger on an outgoing flight told The Advertiser that his Delta Air Lines flight from Kahului to Los Angeles was delayed because of the runway outage.

Larry Hemley of Boston said airline and airport officials at first provided little information on what was happening, but later helped stranded passengers get hotel accommodations and make flight plans for Christmas Day.

Hemley estimated that hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport Wednesday.

The Maui Fire Department confirmed that both runways were operating yesterday.