Thousands Stranded as Greece Airspace Chaos Halts Flights
Thousands of travellers are stranded after Greece shut its airspace due to a communications failure, grounding flights and triggering chaos across Europe’s airports.
A communications failure forced Greece to close its airspace, stranding thousands of passengers across Europe and causing widespread flight cancellations and delays.
Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the radio communications disruption that occurred Sunday morning, which led to the temporary suspension of all incoming and outgoing flights.
Some flights have been allowed to resume – although incoming flights are still being diverted or instructed to return to their original departure points. Athens' main airport has been the most affected, while Thessaloniki airport has been completely shut down.
The timing of the disruption has heightened fears that passengers will not be able to get home before the start of the working week.
One passenger at Athens International Airport told Greek broadcaster Mega TV: "I was supposed to fly with SAS to London via Stockholm. I have to be at Newport Hospital tomorrow morning for work. I won't be able to get there on time, I don't know what else to say.
"Who is going to pay for the extra costs of this trip?" "We still don't know when or how we're going to leave; nobody is telling us anything."
More than 90 flights to and from Athens Airport alone have been affected – although some flights have since resumed.
An airport employee said that 35 planes are now being allowed to take off every hour, but the airport is still unable to handle incoming flights.
Flights from Dublin, Barcelona, and Paris were initially ordered to return to their original airports, while services from Copenhagen and Malta were completely canceled.
Other flights bound for Athens were placed on standby, while flights to and from other Greek airports were also affected. According to public broadcaster ERT, three flights from Heraklion Airport on the island of Crete, one of which was bound for Munich, have been delayed.
According to reports, most incoming flights are being diverted to Turkey if they haven't been canceled outright.
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The disruption comes during a busy period for air travel to and from Athens, which typically handles more than 600 scheduled flights daily, as people return from their winter holidays.
Amidst the chaos, some passengers have complained about a lack of information.
One told the news site Flash: "We have no updates. They told us we would be able to leave, but I don't think that's true." “I can’t see my flight on the departure board, and I have to leave in a little while.”
Another passenger, who was on a flight to Rhodes that was forced to return to Athens. “From that moment until now, we have had no information.”
Domestic passengers may have the option of traveling home via Greece’s rail network, but this would take considerably longer.
The cause of the disruption is believed to be related to the radio system used by air traffic controllers to communicate with planes in their airspace.
Panagiotis Saros, chairman of the Greek Air Traffic Controllers Association, told ERT that all frequencies “suddenly disappeared,” adding: “We couldn’t communicate with the aircraft in the sky.”
The broadcaster later reported that an initial investigation by the Greek security services suggested the problem may have been caused by a malfunction at an antenna in the Gerania mountains near Athens.
Italy, Turkey, and Cyprus are assisting Greece in managing the situation.
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