Emergencies and diversions last night in Athens

Last updated 25/10/2009 17:10

During last night 2 emergencies and numerous diversions occurred at Athens airport. During Blue1's departure from Athens to Helsinki (KF 894), the plane had a problem with the right engine and had to abort the take off and return to the apron. The plane involved was the MD-90 registered OH-BLD. The plane is still parked on stand A38 of Athens being inspected/repaired.
The second emergency happened a little later when Air Arabia flight G9 282 from Athens to Sharjah had to return to the airport after departure because there was a problem with the right engine of the Airbus A320. The plane involved was A6-ABB and is parked on stand A40 of Athens. A replacement A320, registered A6-ABJ, was send to pick up the passengers and is expected to depart at 13:30L from Athens.
Also 3 Thomson, 2 Monarch and 2 First Choice planes had to divert to Athens due to bad weather conditions at CFU (Corfu, Greece) which prevented them from landing there.

Update 25/10/2009
Thanks to "The Aviation Herald", it appears that the problem with the Air Arabia A320 was not on the right hand engine but on the left one (#1 engine). The problem was at the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) of the left hand engine. Also it appears that the plane didn't actually take off but rather aborted take off while it was speeding up for departure. During a runway inspection after the incident an engine access panel was found on it.