Two aircraft were involved in separate runway incidents at Kittilä Airport in Finnish Lapland on Saturday afternoon. Both planes veered into snowbanks during taxiing due to strong winds. No injuries were reported.
The incident occurred after 16:00, when a Swiss International Air Lines Airbus A220-300 carrying about 150 passengers slid off the taxiway following its arrival from Geneva. Around the same time, a smaller business jet operated by Nextant Aerospace with fewer than 10 passengers was also pushed off course by the wind.
Neither aircraft made contact with the other.
Lapland Rescue Services described the weather conditions as severe, citing strong crosswinds and poor visibility at the airport. They dispatched ten emergency response units to the scene, and the situation was initially logged as a major aviation incident.
The Swiss Air jet, which seats up to 160 passengers and is nearly 40 metres long, had just completed its landing and was taxiing when the incident occurred.
The smaller jet, a 400XT model designed for short-haul executive flights, was on the ground at the same time.
The aircraft were towed back to position during the evening. Finavia confirmed that the Swiss jet was being removed from the taxiway and that delays to other flights were expected. It was not immediately clear how long operations would be affected.
Weather conditions at several northern airports, including Kittilä, Rovaniemi and Ivalo, were described as difficult throughout Saturday. Visibility in Kittilä was severely limited due to heavy snowfall, and winds measured at the airport reached average speeds of 15 metres per second during the afternoon.
The storm, named Hannes, has affected large parts of Finland with strong winds and snow, creating hazardous travel conditions on land and in the air.
HT
