Airline passengers were stuck inside a plane on the runway in Keflavík for two hours when this winter‘s first major storm hit on Sunday.
An airplane flying to Keflavík airport from Copenhagen had to be diverted to Glasgow in Scotland and other evening flights from London, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm were delayed till after midnight, when the weather is supposed to have gone down.
The planes that did manage landing could not be safely attached to the jet bridges so passengers from two Wow Air planes had to be transferred to the terminal by buses, RÚV reports.
An Icelandair plane could not be safely opened after landing so the passengers had to wait on board for almost two hours. One of them told RÚV that some people had gotten seasick from the wind shaking the plane.
According to Icelandair’s PR officer, members from ICE-SAR eventually assisted airport staff transferring the passengers to the terminal.
The cargo rooms of the airplanes in Keflavík couldn’t be opened due to strong wind so no luggage can be handed over so passengers need to wait at the terminal till the storm blows over. They are also advised not to attempt travelling from the airport to Reykjavík.
But the storm has not only disrupted air travel; the ring road had to be closed temporarily at Kjalarnes where wind gusts went up to 40-50 m/s.
Strætó cancelled all its journeys outside of Reykjavík and ferry Herjólfur cancelled all its journeys on Sunday and will possibly need to change its route to Þorlálkshöfn harbour on Monday.
Up to 80 ICE-SAR volunteers in Southwest and South Iceland were called out to help drivers whose cars were stuck in snow or to contain and fasten loose objects causing danger in the storm.
No major accidents or injuries have been reported.
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