The system outage forced a plane carrying Prime Minister Robert Fico to turn around and head back to Slovakia.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Belgian airspace has reopened after a technical issue with the air traffic control Sky's computer
00:07system forced its closure for over an hour.
00:11Flights were unable to take off or land at any of the country's main airports, but a
00:15Sky spokesperson said a system reboot meant flights were gradually returning to normal.
00:22Because of a technical issue with the air traffic control, the air traffic in Belgium
00:28was temporarily suspended this afternoon and is now slowly resuming.
00:34The impact for us was that some flights were delayed, from 20 minutes to one hour, and
00:42two flights were deviated to the airport in Lille.
00:45So we will inform our passengers and now the situation is gradually stabilizing.
00:52Brussels airport says there may still be some delays while air traffic control clears the
00:57backlog and advises passengers to check with their airlines for updates.
01:02The system outage also forced a plane carrying Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico to turn
01:07around and head home.
01:09Fico was traveling to Brussels for a scheduled meeting with European Union officials.
01:14Fico's views on Russia have sharply differed from the European mainstream.
01:19He returned to power in 2023 after his leftist smear party won the parliamentary election
01:25on a pro-Russia and anti-America platform.
01:28Since then, he's ended Slovakian military aid for Ukraine, lashed out at EU sanctions
01:33on Russia and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO.
01:37He's also been a vocal critic of Ukraine's decision to end the flow of Russian energy
01:42exports to Europe.