Europe, Editor’s Pick



A power failure at a control centre has paralysed most of air traffic in and over Belgium and caused chaos at Brussels airport because of delays, detours and cancellations of flights.

A passenger queues at Hamburg Airport where 25% of flights have been cancelled.

Massive disruption in Belgium spilled over to other countries. Image by (AP Photo/dpa, Bodo Marks)

Planes slowly started flying again by mid-afternoon today but by that time, thousands of passengers at Brussels airport had been affected.

Some passengers were left sitting in their planes on the runway for hours while others landed in neighbouring countries or missed international connections. Hundreds thronged the hallways of the airport looking for information or new tickets.

Dominique Dehaene of the Belgocontrol agency said that a sudden power surge had taken out the main air traffic control system and also blew the switches to the emergency generators. “We were twice unlucky,” he said.

Well over 100 flights were cancelled and dozens rerouted to neighbouring airports in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

High-altitude flights over Belgium were unaffected since they are controlled from the continent-wide Eurocontrol agency.

(Press Association)