Problems in several flights to "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport today were caused by the dense fog in the atmosphere around the airport.
As a result, passenger flights either returned to the destination from where they started, or were forced to land at other airports in the country. The problems due to low visibility were noticed shortly after 8:00 am, with the situation normalizing after almost an hour and a half.
According to the information of iefimerida.gr, a total of 8 passenger flights to Athens International Airport modified their landing at other airports, while the same happened to four aircraft that were carrying out cargo flights for the transport of goods.
Which flights were unable to land due to fog?
According to cross-referenced information, two planes that took off from different airports in Istanbul failed to land in Athens, and for that reason were forced to return back to Turkey. The same happened with two flights from Tel Aviv to Athens. In this case, the pilots of the aircraft landed at the airports of Heraklion and Chania, respectively.
At the same time, an aircraft that took off from Larnaca also ended up at the airport of Heraklion, Crete "Nikos Kazantzakis".
Regarding domestic flights:
Aircraft that departed from Thessaloniki returned back to "Macedonia" airport.
An aircraft that took off from Heraklion ended up in Chania.
An aircraft that departed from Crete landed at the state airport of Chios "Homeros".
Now the flights are taking place normally without any problems.
Marousakis: As of Saturday, the fogs are receding
Meteorologist Klearchos Marousakis mentioned the issue of the dense fog that also covered Attica with his post on Facebook.
Specifically, Mr. Marousakis said:
"Thick fogs this morning in several maritime coastal areas of our country and beyond. In the satellite photo we took a while ago (sat24.com) we mark with the white circles the areas with dense fog as recorded by the visible spectrum of the satellite. Dense fogs also in Mesogeia in Attica.
In our forecast model map we can observe the fog estimation accuracy in the cloud cover maps.
Wait until the northerlies come in from Saturday afternoon and the fogs and increased relative humidity subside."
Source: iefimerida.gr