Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Sweden.
STOCKHOLM: A technical glitch disrupted air traffic throughout Sweden and grounded flights to and from Stockholm for several hours on Thursday before being fixed, authorities said.
“The technical problems with LFV (Sweden’s Civil Aviation Authority) radar facility is solved. The air traffic is back to normal. However there can be some delays,” LFV said in a statement.
Asa Ohman, a spokeswoman for the operator Swedavia which runs 10 airports throughout the country, including Stockholm’s two airports Arlanda and Bromma, attributed the problem to a “data communications failure”. She did not provide further details.
“Airplanes in the air around Stockholm were initially allowed to land, but no planes were being allowed to take off from those airports,” Ohman told AFP.
Traffic was also slowed at Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city located in the southwest of the country.
Waiting to leave for Ukraine, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt expressed his annoyance on Twitter: “Well, no take off for Kiev at the moment. Stockholm air traffic control systems seems to have broken down. Not supposed to happen.”
Other airports administered by Swedavia also experienced flight delays, including Malmo, in southern Sweden, Visby on the Baltic island of Gotland, as well as northern airports in Lulea, Umea, Kiruna and Are-Ostersund.
On November 4, a solar flare briefly disabled the radar at Sweden’s largest airports -- Arlanda and Bromma -- for several hours and caused significant flight delays throughout southern Sweden. - AFP
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