The Alicante-Elche airport It is done open after the fire that has affected part of the deck and which has kept the aerodrome closed in recent hours and which has been deemed stabilized. Hundreds of passengers queued at noon at the windows of the airlines to claim their missed flights yesterday and try to get a seat on a flight that will take them to their destination as soon as possible. There are also many passengers checking in and some have already passed the gate. The first flight was scheduled to take off at 14.05 hours to Brussels. The airport is gradually returning to normal, although there is still a lot of police presence and a continuous limited area.
The officer of the Operations Department of the Alicante Provincial Fire Consortium Pepe Cerdá explained that the fire on the airport deck penetrated the flammable roof layers and managed to progress undetected, with the problem for extinction that they were under another metal layer that the water does not reach.
Cerdá explained to Europa Press that when the firefighters arrived the fire was “quite developed” on the inside of the roof, with “added difficulty” in this type of roof that there are several layers, some flammable, through which the fire penetrated and managed to progress undetected.
Also, another drawback is that flammable layers are underneath a metallic layer “and the water does not reach those areas”, has detailed. Given this, he has indicated that work is being done to cut the advance of the flames “by raising the roof from above, from the pieces that do not spread the fire to reach the asphalt, saving rock wool and going to the area of wood “as there is a layer of chipboard.
Likewise, he specified that from the inside of the terminal, with scaffolding, the false ceilings are “being cleaned up” and extinguishing from within. ” “The origin and cause is still to be determined,” he explained, noting that they will continue in the area “until it is deemed extinct.”
Derivative flights to Murcia
The fire at the Alicante-Elche airport has forced to drift this Thursday 48 flights to the International Airport of the Region of Murcia, and 14 to that of Valencia. Most of the flights are operated by the Ryanair company, although there are also Easyjet and Jet2 lines, among others. Likewise, most are destined for the United Kingdom, cities such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle or Edinburgh, but there are also other destinations such as Geneva (Switzerland) or Stockholm (Sweden).
However, Aena explains that companies constantly vary their scheduling, so the flight schedule may change from one moment to the next.
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To all this is added that the Corvera airport managed this Wednesday a total of 12 flights that had as their origin or destination the Alicante airport, according to the same sources.
Aena has indicated, on the other hand, that the transfer of passengers from Alicante to Murcia corresponds to the respective companies, which normally enable buses for this purpose, although it is a task that each company manages with its passengers.
Aena has confirmed that the diversion of flights from Alicante to Corvera does not affect the normal operation of Murcia airport, which has the capacity to take on all these flights and carry out its own operations normally.
However, Aena has reinforced airport services and it has coordinated more handling agents, who are the personnel in charge of maintaining the aircraft, deploying the gangways through which the passengers descend or refueling, among other tasks.
“Recovering the airport will take many days because we are talking about state-of-the-art technology and a prestigious airport in Spain: an infrastructure that receives thousands of visitors a year, “said the regional secretary for Emergencies, José María Ángel, highlighting the large-scale coordination effort.
Works all night
Aena sources reported first thing in the morning that firefighters have been working all night and that progress had been made in fire control, although this “not yet off”, when it was about to dawn.
The tasks have been very complex for the location where the flames were declared, an area of difficult access, and also for the composition of the roofing materials (rock wool, asphalt, wood and metal plates, among other components), which has made the foam not entirely effective.
The combustion of these materials has generated from the beginning a large amount of smoke, highly visible for miles around.
The flames have affected more than 1,200 square meters of ceiling and also to the VIP area of the airport.
About 30 of the more than 50 firefighters that have continued during the night belong to the parks of Elche and San Vicente del Raspeig of the Provincial Consortium of the Alicante Provincial Council, 18 come from the city of Alicante and the rest are from the emergency department located at the aerodrome itself.
A crisis cabinet constituted by the subdelegate of the Government in Alicante, Araceli Poblador, the president of the Diputación, Carlos Mazon, and the mayors of Alicante, Luis Barcala, and Elche, Carlos Gonzalez, in addition to the director of the venue, Laura Navarro, among others, who met last night and this morning.
The consequences of the fire, the most serious in the airport’s history, affected 62 of the 125 flights scheduled yesterday, of which 31 were departures from Alicante. The passengers of fourteen of these flights were transferred in bus to the airports of València and Murcia, where they took the planes to their destinations. As for the planned landings at the Alicante-Elche airport, ten were originally canceled and 21 flights were diverted to Murcia and Valencia, from where the passengers continued their bus trip to El Altet.
The airlines housed in different Hotels passengers of the 17 canceled flights departing from El Altet. The Civil Traffic Guard mounted a special operation restricting access to the terminal only for buses and taxis.
In total, between workers and passengers, the fire altered the day to about ten thousand people, on one of the weakest days of the week in terms of flights.
During the first hours of the fire, flights continued to fly whose passengers were already in the departure lounges, but from the first moment closed the airport upon arrival of planes, which forced to divert four flights to València and Murcia. The rest of the operations destined for Alicante, ten were canceled and 21 ended in Valencia and Murcia.
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Emergency plan
The public entity Aena activated the emergency plan suspending entry and exit operations, although technically the airport did not close, but was only operational for emergencies. Aena firefighters from the airport itself, reinforced by colleagues from the Alicante parks. The work to completely extinguish the fire was complicated due to the fact that the tiles and the insulating material of the roof had to be dismantled, difficult works and for which a lot of expertise is needed. The Government Deputy Delegate, Araceli Poblador yesterday reported that they would last all night.
Chaos took over the airport and its surroundings. The boarding area became a high tension area, where scenes of confusion and concern were experienced. There were even some forced races by the Police to evict as soon as possible the terminal. Aena’s security and the National Police attended some 2,000 people for them to leave the building and relocate outside.
The accesses to the airport were also collapsed and traffic in the internal area was prohibited except for public transport (buses and taxis). Fire trucks and Police and Emergency vehicles filled the loading and unloading area, where a multitude of travelers, workers and crew were waiting to receive news about their flights, although they were suspended “sine die” last night.
A stewardess claimed around seven in the afternoon that “We have been waiting several hours for someone to tell us if our flight is going to leave or not.”
The same thing happened to a family in Alcoy of 16 people, who were preparing to travel to Poland at the same time that the fire was declared. “We were at the gate to catch the plane, when the police started calling us to run away. We have lacked more order and control ”, explained the head of the family, Andrzej Wydrzynski.
The Terminal businesses also had to close their doors and the workers had to leave the area. Those in charge of these establishments, such as Andrea Hidalgo, went quickly to the airport to find out the magnitude of the fire, whose column of smoke was visible from several kilometers. Hidalgo explained that “we have come because we have been notified of what happened but several hours have passed and nobody gives us any information».
Little by little, while the Firefighters continued to work against the fire, the airport was emptying of people, who left the area with buses and taxis, since as explained by the Deputy Delegate of the Government, Araceli Poblador, “our main objective is to empty the airport so that the emergency services can work to solve the situation, which seems to be complicated, since the fire is very large. ” At 19:30 there were very few travelers left.
A crisis cabinet was established at the same airport, in which in addition to the sub-delegate and those responsible for Aena, were the mayor of Elche, Carlos Gonzalez, the mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala, and the operational commands of the National Police, the Civil Guard, Fire and the Ilicitana Local Police.
Elche had to get off the plane in Barajas
The franjiverde expedition was about to take off after arriving from Gijón when they were warned that they should get off
The Elche CF expedition returned yesterday to the illicit lands by bus after the flight that had to bring the players from the Ilicitan team from Madrid was suspended due to the fire at the El Altet airport.
The footballers, the coaching staff and the auxiliaries of the green-green entity they were already mounted on the plane He had to bring them from the capital of Spain at 14:45, but when it was time to take off he did not. No one gave any explanation and after a few minutes of uncertainty they were told that you couldn’t fly because it was impossible to land in Elche and that, therefore, the flight was canceled and they had to get off the aircraft.
The club delegate, Paco Montoya, had to quickly hire a coach because there was no availability on subsequent flights and, shortly after five in the afternoon, the French-green expedition began to return by road. This circumstance also forced to suspend the training scheduled by Pacheta for half past six in the Martínez Valero stadium, because the arrival was scheduled for ten at night.
The players of the ilicitano set they spent the night in Gijón after Tuesday’s game against Sporting. At 12.20 pm they took a plane that took them to the Barajas airport, where they arrived at 13.40 pm. After eating at the same airport and being prepared to catch the next plane, the news of the fire emerged.
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