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Temperatures above 60 degrees were measured by Hannover airport technicians on the runway. However, the airport chief did not dream that the record heat of several days could paralyze his entire airport. "It was unpredictable," said Raoul Hille at Terminal A, where pbadengers are waiting for their delayed flights on Wednesday.
At a routine check of the north runway, the traffic manager discovered the heat damage on Tuesday night at 7:31 pm and set off an alarm. Three concrete slabs of the year 1965 had not withstood the sunlight and were broken. This phenomenon known as "blow-up" is known by the old motorways, but not by the traffic lanes.
Why do the slopes of desert airports defy the heat, while the material gives way to north of Germany? And why are the other German airports not reporting similar problems? According to aeronautical expert Heinrich Großbongardt, blockages are possible elsewhere in Germany, such as in Hanover.
Other airports like Stuttgart have already increased the number of their checks. "In regions like Qatar, the expansion joints in concrete are designed for temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius, while in Germany, aspects such as frost protection and strong precipitation has been put forward. " 19659005] 28 takeoffs and landings canceled
The Hanover sun was particularly intense, said the airport boss, Hille. The damage would not have affected air traffic under normal conditions to a large extent, however, in Hannover, the second runway is closed due to renovations. Because the specialists were already there, after all, the repair could start immediately. Wednesday at 6 o'clock landed after about eleven o'clock break again the first machine of Palma de Mallorca.
41 departures affected and 44 landings 28 were completely removed. Many have started or landed at other airports such as Hamburg, Cologne or Berlin-Schönefeld. Of the approximately 15,000 pbadengers who stopped the heat damage, there were also hundreds of families who wanted to get into the summer holidays. Most of them first drove home, were taken by the airlines in hotels or driven to another airport of departure. Some had to wait about 30 hours for a replacement flight.
Hundreds of stranded people spent the night in Terminal C, Johanniter installed about 200 camp beds and firefighters distributed snacks and drinks during the night. Entangled, hungry and completely tired, three families are still sitting on sofas in the hallway Wednesday afternoon. Three teenagers play cards. "We started that night at 2 am," says the elder. His flight to Antalya was scheduled to begin at 8 pm Tuesday night, but was postponed until 2 am Thursday morning.
"Very big shit"
The tour operator is stubborn, the airline does not feel responsible, reports David Schmidt from Berne near Bremen, who wanted to fly with his wife and daughter for a week in Turkey. "This is no longer a holiday, it's just stress," moaned Sandra Schmidt. They want to take legal action against those responsible for their nightmarish holidays at the same time as the two other families in Dortmund and Ostfriesland. But who is responsible?
The Hille airport chief apologizes expressly to the pbadengers concerned. "It was a big nuisance, a very big shit," he says. Blame the time. The legal liability is not clear. "This was not predictable," said the director of the blast. There are no sensors like car tires, which indicates overheating of the track. The pbadengers have never been in danger, he says.
For Thursdays and Fridays again, record temperatures in Lower Saxony are announced: up to 37 degrees Celsius. Between takeoffs and landings, two professional firefighters fire and cool the runway with thousands of gallons of water. "Watering is an emergency measure," says Hille.
This may cool down two or three degrees to avoid repeating the swelling. But you can not completely exclude that the problem reappears.
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