A combination of snow, ice, and the night flight ban resulted in hundreds of passengers being forced to spend the night inside planes at Munich Airport. Now, authorities intend to check whether criminal legal consequences arise from the incident. A representative of the Upper Bavaria North Police Headquarters confirmed that a report summarizing the events is currently being prepared for the prosecutor’s office.
According to the representative, the report will be transferred to the Landshut Prosecutor’s Office shortly. This is described as a standard procedure. He could not name the exact timeframe for completing the document. No statements have been received from the passengers themselves.
Meanwhile, the airport operator and Lufthansa have commented on the occurrence. Munich Airport reported that unexpectedly heavy snowfalls on Thursday caused flight delays and cancellations throughout the day. Approximately 100 flights were annulled, and numerous delays arose due to long de-icing times and temporary runway closures for snow removal. In the evening, some flights received special take-off permits between midnight and 1:00 AM — normally, a flight ban is in effect in Munich from midnight to 5:00 AM. However, several planes already processed and ready for departure ultimately did not receive permission to take off.
We understand that the situation on Thursday evening was difficult and hard to explain to passengers, indicated the official statement from Munich Airport. We offer our sincere apologies to the affected travelers. According to the airport, six flights with approximately 600 passengers were affected. Five aircraft were operating flights for the Lufthansa Group, and one for Air Arabia. The liners could not return to the terminals because, after flight cancellations throughout the day, those were already occupied by parked aircraft. Therefore, the aircraft were placed at parking positions on the airfield.
The reasons why people nonetheless remained inside the planes were explained by the airport as the late hour and communication problems: bus service at night was severely limited. No threat to the passengers arose at any moment; the airlines provided those on board with everything necessary.
The airline promises compensation
The Lufthansa Group also issued a statement, referring to the airport: an instruction was received to return to an external parking position because there were no free spots at Terminal 2. Crews constantly informed the people; heating was working in the planes, and there was sufficient electricity. Only after several hours were the passengers able to exit and be taken away by buses. Lufthansa asked the victims for forgiveness and announced corresponding compensation payments.
The head of the Munich Airport Supervisory Board, Bavarian Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU), subjected the occurrence to sharp criticism and promised to take action. The situation for the people on board the planes was simply unacceptable. Such a thing must not happen, Füracker emphasized. He expects a report from the airport on what chain of circumstances and decisions led to such a state of affairs. At the same time, I immediately expect a strategy with concrete measures that will clearly prevent a recurrence of this. The Free State of Bavaria is the majority shareholder of Munich Airport with a share of 51 percent. The remaining shares belong to the federation and the city of Munich.
Source: Der Spiegel
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