Electrical failure causes chaos at Belgian airports

Chaos hit Belgian airports on Wednesday when an

electrical failure at air traffic control in Brussels

caused Belgium-bound flights to be diverted, with

departures delayed and flights cancelled over six

hours.

No plane was allowed to land or take off from

Belgian airports between 0730 GMT and 1200 GMT

because of the power outage that paralysed

screens and radars at Belgocontrol air traffic

control.

Officials said 147 flights were cancelled at

Brussels international airport, affecting 20,000

people, including 4,000 who had to land at airports

in neighbouring France, Germany and Luxembourg.

Reports said passengers affected included a

Spanish minister and the negotiators in Greece’s

bailout talks.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker

had to cut short a press conference with UN chief

Ban Ki-moon, saying he was forced to travel by

land to Luxembourg to take a flight for Japan that

he had been due to take off from Brussels.

“We’re not operational, navigation screens are not

working in the tower,” Dominique Dehaene,

spokesman for Belgium’s official Belgocontrol

agency told AFP.

All morning, planes headed to the EU capital were

diverted to regional airports, in an effort to clear

Belgium’s airspace, airport authorities said.

Planes overflying Belgium however were not

affected, they said.

Traffic was suspended at the regional airport of

Charleroi, a low-cost airline hub near the French

border, as well as Antwerp and Liege, near

Germany.

Several flights were diverted to Lille airport in

northern France, a spokesman there said. About

1,000 passengers were to travel on from Lille to

their intended destination by bus.

About 600 flights a day arrive or depart from

Brussels airport, which serves the headquarters of

both the EU and NATO.

“Due to air traffic, Brussels Group meeting will be

delayed today,” said in a tweet Eleni Varvitsiotis,

the EU correspondent for Greek newspaper

Kathimerini, referring to the negotiations for

Greece’s bailout.

“Greek team arrives via Duesseldorf,” she said.

The situation at Belgian airports was only expected

to return to normal by late Wednesday evening due

to the ripple effect from the power outage, which

affected flight crews and caused planes to land in

neighbouring countries.

Ninety minutes after air traffic was allowed to

resume, a first flight took off from Brussels

international airport, heading for the United

States, an AFP journalist said.