Some parts of Spanish airspace were closed Friday morning due to a Chinese missile that spiraled out of control as it entered the atmosphere. There were delays of about half an hour on several commercial flights. However, the situation has been raised, but the normalization of flights will take place gradually.
The body that controls the Spanish airports, Aena, said via the social network Twitter that there were no cancellations, but delays in connections.
“Of the 5,484 scheduled flights, 300 were delayed,” Aena said.
Xavier Benavente explained that Spanish airspace was closed for 40 minutes between 9:37 AM and 10:17 AM (8:37 AM and 9:17 AM in Lisbon) due to the trajectory of the missile, which mainly affected the operation of Madrid’s airports; Barcelona, Lleida and Reus, in the region of Catalonia; as well as in Zaragoza and Valladolid.
Eurocontrol informs about the re-entry in the subsidiary of a Chinese cohete in the atmosphere. Rate Cero is set for certain parts of Spanish airspace and can affect air traffic in the form of delays in land and route deviations in the road. pic.twitter.com/kfFBYG9s8z
– Air controls (@controladores) Nov 4, 2022
Airports in the Balearic Islands were not affected, as previously reported.
The missile’s trajectory crossed the entire Iberian Peninsula, with a length of 1200 kilometers, from the north of Portugal, 80 kilometers north of Madrid and left the area to Catalonia.
The closed airspace was exactly the airspace that extended over the previously detected runway, plus one hundred kilometers to the right and another hundred kilometers to the left of the line.
These types of missiles usually disintegrate when they come into contact with the atmosphere and have no impact on air traffic, but in this case, the device’s eight-ton wingspan led to decisions being made to avoid collisions that didn’t happen.
According to the newspaper La Vanguardia, Portuguese airspace was also affected. The same source speaks of “an hour of chaos” in Spanish airspace.
The rocket in question is the Long March 5B, which launched on October 31 and weighs about 20 tons.
with Lusa
News updated at 14:06
Source: DN
