Yesterday's storm caused significant disruptions to air traffic at Keflavík airport. Passengers in several planes were left stranded on the tarmac for hours as the planes could not dock at their gates, and some passengers had to wait as much as four hours for their luggage, as ground staff had trouble unloading the planes.
Unsafe wind speeds
According to safety regulations gates cannot be attached to planes if individual wind gusts exceed 50 knots (57.5 mph). When wind speeds exceed this planes will either have to wait for the wind to slow down or the planes to be unloaded in an alternative manner. the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV reports that one plane from the Polish airline Wizz Air coming from Budapest in Hungary was forced to wait on the tarmac for two hours before the passengers were permitted to leave the plane.
According to the local newspaper Fréttablaðið the windspeeds at the airport were too high to allow for the safe operation of equipment at the airport. As a consequence concourse gates could not be connected to the planes and baggage handlers were unable to unload the baggage.
Planes circled the airport for hours
Icelandair delayed all its flights which were scheduled to leave in the afternoon. Two WOW air flights were similarly delayed as was one flight by Wizz Air. By evening the wind had slowed down, allowing these flights to take off.
Several planes which were scheduled to land at Keflavík yesterday had trouble approaching the airport. RÚV reports that one plane, from Primera, on route from Tenerife, was forced to abandon it's attempts to land after circling the airport for nearly two hours. The plane landed at Egilsstaðir airport in East Iceland.
Yesterday's storm caused significant disruptions to air traffic at Keflavík airport. Passengers in several planes were left stranded on the tarmac for hours as the planes could not dock at their gates, and some passengers had to wait as much as four hours for their luggage, as ground staff had trouble unloading the planes.
Unsafe wind speeds
According to safety regulations gates cannot be attached to planes if individual wind gusts exceed 50 knots (57.5 mph). When wind speeds exceed this planes will either have to wait for the wind to slow down or the planes to be unloaded in an alternative manner. the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV reports that one plane from the Polish airline Wizz Air coming from Budapest in Hungary was forced to wait on the tarmac for two hours before the passengers were permitted to leave the plane.
According to the local newspaper Fréttablaðið the windspeeds at the airport were too high to allow for the safe operation of equipment at the airport. As a consequence concourse gates could not be connected to the planes and baggage handlers were unable to unload the baggage.
Planes circled the airport for hours
Icelandair delayed all its flights which were scheduled to leave in the afternoon. Two WOW air flights were similarly delayed as was one flight by Wizz Air. By evening the wind had slowed down, allowing these flights to take off.
Several planes which were scheduled to land at Keflavík yesterday had trouble approaching the airport. RÚV reports that one plane, from Primera, on route from Tenerife, was forced to abandon it's attempts to land after circling the airport for nearly two hours. The plane landed at Egilsstaðir airport in East Iceland.
