More than 20 weather stations around Norway are reporting record low air pressure systems following weekend storms. The situation has affected some aircraft including domestic carrier Widerøe’s, which had to cancel several flights in Northern Norway on Monday.
The low pressure affects the aircraft’s instruments, opening the potential for errors that could make flying unsafe. Widerøe thus grounded most of its propeller aircraft designed to land on the short runways of Northern Norway’s small airports.
“The biggest problem is of course that our planes are grounded,” Bjørn Sve, a captain at widerøe since 1997, told state broadcaster NRK. “We of course want to fly our passengers to where they’re going, but we’re not able to do our jobs.”
Larger jets such as those run by SAS were unaffected but Tromsø’s airport had more than 50 flight cancellations on Monday. The head of Norway’s pilots’ association, Petter Førde said he’d never experienced such a phenomenon in his 38 years as a pilot for Braathens, SAS and Widerøe. “But for every airline, safety is priority-number-one,” he said.
The low-pressure system over the western portions of Northern Norway were moving east and expected to lie over Finnmark Monday night.
newsinenglish.no staff
