AMSTERDAM – A KLM aircraft was stopped on Wednesday evening in Ecuador to pick up stranded passengers.
Due to pick-up trucks on the runway, KLM was unable to land in Guayaquil.
The runway in Guayaquil, the largest city in the South American country was occupied by a worried mayor and a group of people. KLM confirms the incident. The Ecuadorian prosecutor is investigating the events.
The mayor did not want KLM to land because of the coronavirus, because it was thought that passengers from Europe were also in the aircraft. KLM currently flies empty on routes to Ecuador due to travel restrictions.
The plane first went to Quito, where 185 travelers with destination Amsterdam boarded. When KLM subsequently wanted to leave for Guayaquil in Quito, the pilot was not allowed to land there. “This while we only had travelers on board who had to go to Europe. We were, therefore, unable to pick up the 164 travelers in Guayaquil,” a KLM spokesperson told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The plane then flew directly to Amsterdam. According to sources, KLM will make a new attempt to fly to Guayaquil on Friday.
The KLM plane could land in Quito.
The airline is bringing home hundreds of thousands of Dutch people who are trapped all over the world. Air traffic has been almost shut down in large parts of the world due to the coronavirus outbreak.
