What happened
At night, an MD-82 was parked at gate C-9 with the jetway connected for passenger boarding. At the time of the event, most passengers had already boarded the aircraft. Because the aircraft's Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) was inoperative, electrical power was being provided by an external ground power unit, and cabin air conditioning was being supplied via an external ground source through the right engine air conditioning system.
A failure occurred in the electrical ground power supply, which caused the aircraft cabin lights to extinguish and triggered the automatic illumination of the emergency floor track lights. Following this power loss, smoke and fumes from the exhaust of the electrical ground power cart were drawn into the aircraft cabin through the external ground air conditioning source.
Upon noticing the smoke, the crew and passengers initiated an evacuation through the forward left cabin door (L-1). The occupants exited via the jetway and entered the terminal; all persons were not injured.