It’s been a terrible week for civil aviation with the shot down Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam. Here’s our overview of all our topics:
- Anguish & grief at Amsterdam & Kuala Lumpur for MH17 families
- Chaos at London Heathrow after thunder storms
- Fog cancelling flights at Auckland airport
It was in all the news this week when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine this week. The flight originating in Amsterdam carried 298 people on board with the majority being from the Netherlands. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (AMS) then quickly became the center point of many news reports about grieving families. The Time magazine for example reported that the relatives started arriving at [the airport] as the sun began to set on a warm Amsterdam evening. They gathered briefly, bewildered, at a bar area inside the departure hall before police ushered them onto airport shuttle buses to an undisclosed location in the airport, where they would start their anguished wait for news of family members they feared lost on Flight MH17. Similar scenes took place at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), reported by media outlets such as the Straits Times.
Additionally, many airlines are now reassuring their passengers of not (e.g. Qantas) or no longer (e.g. Singapore Airlines) using the Ukrainian airspace for their flight routes to and from Europe.
Our next story come from the United Kingdom where we heard just yesterday that thunder & lightning storms cancelled flights at the country’s largest airport. The Telegraph reported that the stormy weather caused travel disruption at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) as airlines were forced to cancel one in five flights for a two-hour period. Well, sometimes a night curfew can be a good thing as you can probably expect things to run smoothly again today.
Like the previous story, our last one focuses around weather influenced delays. This time the news came from the other side of the planet though when TVNZ reported that dense fog that put a halt to the travel plans for those flying in and out of Auckland Airport (AKL) this [Monday] morning has lifted. A total of 63 domestic flights were cancelled and 11 are still delayed due to the fog.
That’s all for this week – safe travels everyone!
[Photo “Amsterdam Schiphol Airport entrance” by Cjh1452000 – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons]