Strong winds cause hundreds of flight cancellations, delays at Dutch airprots

Strong winds in the aftermath of winter storm Ciara were still causing major problems at the Netherlands' five airports on Monday. Schiphol Airport alone reported 280 cancellations and 330 delayed flights.

A total of 142 departures and 138 arrivals were canceled at Schiphol as of noon on Monday, after the airport already canceled 240 flights on Sunday. 121 departures and 209 arrivals were delayed.

At Eindhoven Airport, two departures and one arrival were canceled, and 13 departures and 10 arrivals were delayed. At Rotterdam The Hague Airport there were two canceled and four delayed arrivals, and one canceled and two delayed departures. Grongingen Airport Eelde reported three canceled arrivals and departures each. And Maastricht Aachen Airport reported two canceled arrivals and two canceled departures.

Ciara's strong winds caused a number of difficult landings in the Netherlands on Sunday. A video on social media shows major panic on a plane trying to land at Schiphol on Sunday evening. The Air Europa flight from Madrid to Amsterdam made five attempts at landing before finally managing it, one passenger aboard said to RTL Nieuws. The 300 passengers on board were in a proper panic.

"The turbulence above Schiphol was massive. The pilot twice stopped the landing really at the very last moment. At 150 meters above the runway, we took off again. Really not cool," he said. "People were screaming and puking. The turbulence was enormous, everything vibrated and went back and forth. The luggage flew back and forth. I am used to flying, but I have never experienced this."

Grote paniek aan boord van dit vliegtuig dat wilde landen op Schiphol vanavond. Door de storm lukte dat tot vijf keer toe niet. Het toestel keerde daarom terug naar Madrid. https://t.co/N2jIujC2sR pic.twitter.com/1etiiIIJSB

— RTL Nieuws (@RTLnieuws) February 9, 2020

A Transavia flight from Faro to Rotterdam The Hague Airport also had a hard time landing, only managing it on the third attempt. "The plane landed safely at 2:03 p.m., but did indeed attempt to land twice before that," a spokesperson for the airport said to AD. According to him, the wind was in a favorable direction for the runway, but the pilot decided to retry the landing three times. "That was the pilot's decision, safety is of course above al else."