The airspace in southern Norway opens again – E24

The error that led to the airspace in southern Norway being closed has been corrected. Gradually, normal traffic will be opened, but there will be delays, says Avinor.

The airspace over the whole of southern Norway was completely closed early Thursday morning as a result of a technical error at the Oslo Control Center.

At 8.40 some traffic could be opened up again, and at 9.35 Avinor stated that the airspace is now gradually being opened to normal traffic.

Travelers must expect delays throughout the day.

Several hours of downtime

At Oslo Airport, the last flight took off at 6 o’clock, according to Avinor’s overview.

NTB spoke just after 6.30 a.m. to a passenger on a flight that was supposed to travel from Gardermoen to Zurich at 6.25 a.m., but where the pilot stated that air traffic control was down over the whole of southern Norway, and that the entire system was paralysed.

While they waited for further information, coffee and food were served in the cabin. An hour and a half after the scheduled departure, the passengers were told that the flight to Switzerland had been canceled and that they had to leave the plane.

Norwegian informed TV 2 that they had to cancel a number of flights, and that they had been told that the airspace would be closed until 11 o’clock.

Not hacking

The reason for the closure was unknown for a while, but Avinor stated that it was not due to a data breach.

– I can deny that it is. There are two systems that do not talk to each other as they should, says press officer Helene Wattanapradit Jensen in Avinor to NRK.

The National Security Agency (NSM) informed NTB earlier on Thursday morning that they had not received any information linking them to what is happening over the airspace in southern Norway.

Rescue missions proceed as normal

The rescue helicopters were able to fly as normal on Thursday morning, rescue manager Jan Erik Skorte in the main rescue center told NRK on Thursday morning.

– If it is a question of life or death, we fly as normal – completely regardless of this, said the rescue leader.

Norsk Luftambulanse was not affected by the flight cancellation, stated press manager Per Håkon Solberg.

There were several planes in the airspace in southern Norway when the news came from Avinor.

Two planes landed at Oslo Airport – one from Billund in Denmark and another from Førde – at 7.10 on Thursday morning. However, a number of subsequent flights had significantly delayed landing times, according to the airport’s records.

Kept up to date

Norwegian’s press officer Silje Glorvigen told VG that all their flights to and from Oslo are affected. She does not have figures on how many planes are involved.

– We keep our passengers updated on what is happening, via text message, she told the newspaper.

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