Published on : Tuesday, April 16, 2019
A stricken military aircraft blocked the runway at Berlin’s second airport after a technical issue caused it to return shortly after take-off. The reports say that both wings of the military aircraft touched the runway during landing.
The German Air Force plane is part of the government fleet, which is a Bombardier Global 5000 executive jet. Shortly after 12 noon, local time, Eurocontrol said that Berlin Schoenefeld now accepting the arrivals again but expect significant flight delay.
Schoenefeld airport said that the delays may still occur. Schoenefeld is an important hub for the two biggest budget airlines in Europe, Ryanair and easyJet, as well as Wizz Air and Norwegian. The first two Ryanair flights from Stansted to Schoenefeld were diverted to the city’s other airport, Tegel.
An easyJet flight from Gatwick due to reach Schoenefeld at 11.50am local time is now expected to touch down at 4.17pm. The morning flight from Luton diverted to Tegel. There is another easyJet departure, to Malaga, is currently running over three hours late.
Schoenefeld Airport was the airport that served the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War, after WWII. It is near Berlin Brandenburg airport, which was due to open in 2011 but has faced a litany of problems and will not be operational until 2020 at the earliest.
In August 2018, the German security officials mistook an Ann Summers vibrator for a hand grenade and ordered an evacuation of part of the terminal of Schoenefeld.
Tags: berlin, eurocontrol