Airport Incidents

1996 April 11th. Germany, Duesseldorf International Airport: terminal fire, 17 people died, more than 70 people were injured, hundreds were trapped in smoke.

1997 Dec 12th. UK, Heathrow International Airport: terminal fire, no fatalities or causalities.

2000 February 5th. U.S., Massachusetts, Boston Logan Airport:: power outage for nearly two hours caused by a transformer fire; tower and runway systems were functional on emergency power-but, people were stuck in elevators, jetways linking airplanes to the terminals were not functioning, X-ray baggage machines and metal detectors lost power, baggage from arriving flights had to be delivered manually, flights were cancelled or diverted.

2000, February 12th. Canada, near Montreal Dorval Airport: fire in airport office one floor above the departure level, forced evacuation and disruption of operations for five hours, over 100 flights had to be cancelled or diverted;

2000, April Congo, Kinshasa, Ndjili International Airport: explosion in a hangar, which is used for cargo handling by customs and tax officials; 216 people were injured, 101 died.

2001 February USA, Washington, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport: due to the power crisis at the U.S. west coast the airport was ordered to reduce electrical consumption by 10 percent; airport is planning to reduce lighting and cooling.

2001, March 3rd. Thailand, Bangkok Airport: A Thai Airways Boeing 737 was destroyed at the gate by fire 35 minutes before it was scheduled to take off. Five members of the cabin crew were the only ones on board the aircraft at the time. Most of the 148 passengers were waiting to board. One member of the cabin crew died, seven other aviation workers were injured. The prime minister of Thailand was also scheduled to board this plane.

2001 March 17th. USA, Georgia, Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport: a truck went into gear without a driver after being jump-started. The runaway vehicle struck a bag tug, and hit two commuter airplanes; two Delta Airlines worker were injured in the incident.

2001 March 18th. USA, Pennsylvania, Erie International Airport: for the third time in four months, the runway lights went out, for the third time in four months, forcing cancellation of late-night flights from Detroit and Pittsburgh.