Airspace, Aircraft | The airspace over southern Norway is temporarily closed

The airspace over the whole of southern Norway is closed on Thursday morning, writes Nettavisen. The closure is temporary and is due to a technical error, says Avinor.

The closure currently applies until 11 o’clock, Norwegian informs TV 2.

– Exciting information

– There is a bit of confusing information here. On the screen it still says that my flight leaves at 08.30. On several other departures it says cancelled. I have checked in, while others going the same way with SAS have been told that check-in is closed, says Nettavisen’s reporter at Gardermoen as the clock approaches 08.30.

– I am going to the Canary Islands via Oslo. The flight I was supposed to take was cancelled. I received an e-mail about a new time, but it’s getting so late that I can’t catch the flight from Oslo, says Barry Schønmingsen to BA at 0730.

– We get quite a bit of information. What the hell are they doing, he says to the newspaper.

Nettavisen has been in contact with a passenger sitting on a plane at Gardermoen that is going to Italy. They boarded the plane just before 7 o’clock, and they were still sitting on the ground waiting when Nettavisen called at 07.40.

They have not been told how long they have to wait.

– Very boring, she tells Nettavisen.

Norwegian: Informs customers

– We have been told that the airspace will be closed until 11 in any case. This means that we will have to cancel a number of flights, says communications advisor Eline Hyggen Skari at Norwegian to TV 2.

– Our team is in the process of informing our customers who receive a message from us via text message. If there are canceled flights, customers can either cancel and get their money back, or they can book a new flight.

Are you affected? Tip Nettavisen on phone 02060 and email [email protected]

The rescue helicopters fly as normal:

– If it is a question of life or death, we fly as normal – completely regardless of this, says rescue manager Jan Erik Skorte of the Central Rescue Center South Norway to NRK.

The fault lies at Avinor’s aviation control center in Røyken. Here there are two computer systems that do not talk to each other as they should, Avinor’s communications manager Cathrine Fuglesang Famholt told Bergensavisen.

– When it has to do with security, there is nothing else to do but close the airspace, she tells the newspaper.

Avinor is responsible for 43 state-owned airports, and the air traffic control service for civil and military aviation in Norway.

– Due to a technical error at the Oslo Control Center, the airspace over southern Norway is temporarily closed. Significant delays are expected. Duration is currently unknown. We encourage all travelers to refer to the information they receive from their airline. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes. This is all the information we have at the moment. We will come back with more information, says a message issued by Avinor just before 07:00.

The error was discovered at 06.30

At Oslo Airport Gardermoen, the last flights took off at 06.00. It was SAS SK 4675 to Alicante and SAS SK1461 to Copenhagen, the overview on avinor.no shows.

NTB spoke just after 6.30 with a passenger on a plane that was supposed to take off from Gardermoen, but where the pilot stated that air traffic control is down all over the country, and that the entire system is paralysed.

Avinor confirms to NTB that the error occurred a little before 6.30.

– We are also affected by this. No aircraft are currently allowed to take off. We have several planes with passengers on board that are ready for departure, but they have to wait, says communications manager Tine Kleive-Mathisen to Sandefjords Blad at 07.30.

Asking passengers to travel to the airport

– Now the airspace is closed in the whole of southern Norway due to challenges at Røyken. For now, the airspace is closed. We are doing what we can to find the fault and get traffic moving again. It is too early to say when that will happen, says Framholt in Avinor to NTB.

She asks the passengers to travel to the airports as usual.

– Do as normal if you do not receive any other message from your airline, says Framholt.

There were several planes in the airspace in southern Norway when the news came from Avinor. These planes will probably be allowed to land, says operations manager Øystein Skaar at Bergen Airport Flesland to Bergensavisen.

– Even if the airspace is closed, these will probably be allowed to land as normal, says Skaar.

– And then no more planes will take off until the situation is clarified, he says.

Check the delays in air traffic at Gardermoen here: