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Ecuador reopens Quito airport(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Eds: Tops with five grafs on reopening airport, suspending Iberia flights only Quito, Nov 10 (EFE).- Ecuador's government said this capital's Mariscal Sucre Airport was reopened Saturday, less than a day after flights were suspended in response to a plane skidding off one of the runways. But Quito also announced the suspension of operations of Spanish airline Iberia, whose Airbus A 340-600 with 333 people on board was the plane that failed to land properly. Ecuadorian Transport and Public Works Minister Hector Villagran told Efe that he "ordered Iberia's flights be suspended," although he said he will analyze the situation in the coming hours and could "review" the decision if Iberia "guarantees the safety" of its flights. Iberia's operations "are suspended for the city of Quito," not for other airports, said Villagran, who added that the flights of other air carriers were resumed at 12:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT) Saturday. Spain's flagship airline said Saturday it will maintain daily flights to Ecuador - which will arrive in the port city of Guayaquil, the Andean nation's largest - despite the accident in Quito. Ecuadorian authorities also said they were continuing to await the results of an investigation into the mishap, in which the Iberia jet left the runway and came to a stop in a protected area on the northern edge of the airport. A spokeswoman for the airport's fire and rescue squad, told Efe Friday that there were "cases of anxiety among the passengers and, some, with a certain degree of hysteria." The accident occurred at 5:06 p.m. local time (2206 GMT) Friday, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Directorate, Johnny Viteri said, adding that "fortunately no injuries were reported." International flights had temporarily been rerouted to Guayaquil, which is located 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of the capital. The Mariscal Sucre Airport, which handles about 2.5 million passengers and 125,000 metric tons of freight per year, lies in a heavily populated area on the north side of Quito and the accident caused alarm in the neighborhood. One witness told Radio Quito of having heard two loud noises, apparently the sound of the airplane's tires blowing out as it traveled down the runway. On Aug. 31, an Iberia Airbus 340 with 330 passengers aboard was left stranded on a runway at Mariscal Sucre after several of its tires blew out. No one was injured in that incident. A new airport is being built in a less populated area some 90 kilometers (55 miles) to the east of Quito and is scheduled to begin operations by 2010. EFE fa/mc Copyright 2007 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |