Schiphol Airport

A ringed seal native to arctic waters was seen lounging on a slip behind a houseboat in Breukelen, Utrecht on Monday night. Experts were concerned the seal could suffer from the hot weather expected week, and might not make it back to the North Sea by itself. People in the Utrecht area were asked to keep an eye open for the seal swimming in the region's waterways.

An unlicensed taxi driver seen soliciting passengers in Schiphol Plaza at the airport was found in possession of a gun, the Marechaussee said in a statement. The man was held in custody at about 4:20 p.m. on Saturday.

Authorities said the 30-year-old was well-known to authorities. He was questioned at the scene and admitted to offering his services as an unlicensed taxi operator, the statement said.

"When asked if the man had weapons or other illegal items, he said he had a weapon on him. A firearm was found in a neck pouch," the Marechaussee said.

Several men were convicted on Monday in connection with a 65 million euro diamond heist at Schiphol Airport in 2005. The highest prison sentence handed down was a seven-year term, even though gemstones worth about 40 million euros were never recovered.

Trains scheduled to travel to-and-from Amsterdam Centraal, Schiphol, and stations in the Amsterdam area were scrapped on Tuesday evening due to "a major disruption in the train traffic control systems," national railway NS said in a statement.

A man who was shot by security troops at Schiphol Airport on Friday afternoon after allegedly threatening people with a knife was identified as a 29-year-old man from Den Haag. The shooting happened in the Schiphol Plaza, the airport's primary entryway which also provides access to the train station below.

Three shots can be heard in amateur video recorded in the plaza.

There is a consistent increase in the police helicopters deployment as a support to the police forces on the ground. According to police statistics acquired by BNR, the police helicopters were mobilized 2,082 times in 2015, while this year they were deployed over 3,121 times to date, an increase of about 50 percent.

The Dutch police have eight helicopters flying mainly from Schiphol Amsterdam and Rotterdam-The Hague Airport. They are mostly used over the Randstad megaregion.

Commuters trying to navigate the Amsterdam area were advised to allow for plenty of extra time if using the highways on Monday evening after a fire in a Schiphol Tunnel passageway led to the closure of both the tunnel and the southbound A4 motorway towards Den Haag. Drivers were told to divert to the congested A2 to Utrecht, and then take the A12 road west as an alternative, adding 30 to 40 kilometers to the drive home.

There were no reported injuries in the fire, but the fire did damage safety systems in the tunnel. 

The Amsterdam D66 wants the Noord/Zuid subway line to be extended to Schiphol Airport, despite the high costs this may entail. The party submitted a proposal, which is backed by the PvdA and VVD, to start an feasibility study into extending the line as soon as possible

Schiphol Airport is the second most expensive airport to park a car for short or long periods in the region, according to website Vliegveldinfo.nl's Fall Report 2015. Only the airport in Brussels, Belgium is more expensive than Schiphol.

Transavia and the Dutch Safety Board are investigating the bumpy landing of the Transavia flight from Spain to Rotterdam on Saturday. One of the things the investigations will look at is Eindhoven Airport's actions while the low on fuel plain was looking for somewhere to land

Schiphol taxi drivers are striking on Monday in protest against the fact that any taxi driver is now allowed to pick up passengers at the airport. Until recently, taxi drivers needed an expensive permit to do so. The taxi drivers will not pick anyone up between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., NU reports.