As a result of a radar failure at Schiphol on Tuesday morning, three flights were forced to divert to Groningen Airport Eelde. KLM landed aircraft from Helsinki (Finland), Humberside (England) and Aberdeen (Scotland) airports, in Groningen.
The passengers remained in the aircraft during their unscheduled stopover. The problem with the radar failure was quickly remedied at Schiphol: which is the base for air traffic control in the Netherlands, with Groningen Airport Eelde also having an air traffic control facility. The airplanes then flew on to Amsterdam to unload their passengers.
KLM announced on Twitter that it was happy with the operation of its Northern fallback option: “Good morning Groningen! Since our tower at Schiphol is out of sight for a moment, we will keep the Martini tower as a landmark”, said the airline.
Whilst Helsinki, Humberside, and Aberdeen are not currently scheduled routes from Airport Eelde, the airport has announced the flights to Munster in Germany will be available from September of 2019.
Goedemorgen @KLM, welkom op Groningen Airport Eelde! pic.twitter.com/8XqUauG9mn
— GroningenAirport.nl (@AirportEelde) 3 september 2019
