Amman, Jan. 4 (Petra) - Air traffic across Greece came to a standstill on Sunday after a loss of radio frequencies crippled aviation communications, grounding airport flights, with the cause of the disruption that began at dawn still unclear.
According to Reuters, the Greek Civil Aviation Authority said restrictions were imposed on airport operations for safety reasons.
Panagiotis Psarros, head of the Greek Air Traffic Controllers Association, told Greek state radio and television, "For some reason, all frequencies were suddenly lost. We were unable to communicate with aircraft in the air and dozens of flights were disrupted." He added that the problem appeared to stem from a collapse of central radio frequency systems in the Athens–Macedonia area control system, the country’s largest air traffic control center, based in Athens.
The center oversees the Athens Flight Information Region, a vast area of airspace under Greek authority. Flight-tracking data showed that Greek airspace was nearly empty.
Psarros said, "We have not been informed of the cause of this problem. It is certain that the equipment we have is extremely old. We have raised this issue several times in the past." Greek state broadcaster ERT reported that arrivals and departures at airports were halted at 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT).
A Greek transport ministry official said some northbound and eastbound flights were allowed to depart, adding that more than 75 flights were delayed.
//Petra// AF
