Delays at Geneva airport due to an alarm about five tourists
The travelers came from the French sector of the airport and went through the two emergency exits, which were under alarm, to reach their flight, as the aéroportuaire platform specified in the afternoon to an information originally disseminated by the online portal 20 minutes. In doing so, they got close to the luggage arrival area and thus entered the security area without being checked.
A first alarm was triggered at 5:50 a.m. The approximately 4,000 passengers who were in the transit area at the time were evacuated to the main terminal, where the counters are located. At the same time, checks were carried out in the building.
“The five tourists were stopped and questioned by the police,” Geneva police spokeswoman Joanna Matta said on request. It was an unintentional act, she said.
65 flights affected
At 7.45 a.m. the security checks were over. The travelers would have had to join the ever-longer queue a second time. The rescue workers would have had to look after ten people with mild fainting spells.
Between 6:10 a.m. and 12:35 p.m., 65 flights were delayed by an average of two hours. Geneva Airport estimates that about two travelers per flight missed their plane.
Flights to France were not affected because they are handled in a different part of the building, airport spokesman Abdel Nour said. Some of the incoming flights landed in Geneva as planned, but in some cases the travelers did not have to be able to get off immediately.
Geneva Airport had expected around 46,000 passengers on Tuesday.