Amsterdam Airport Explosion
 

There has apparently been an explosion at Schiphol. Information from the CBC website. Everything seems sketchy right now, but I'm sure more details will be forthcoming.

Edited for spelling.

[This message has been edited by makin'miles (edited 04-08-2001).]

CNN just broke regular programming to announce the same as CBC. No details yet.

There may be some information found at www.schiphol.nl , but I keep getting a 'Server Too Busy' message.

The BBC seems to have the most details up to this point.

I found a story at the schiphol site: http://www.schiphol.nl/engine/indexf...ang=en&id=1392

In the News forum would have been a good place for this one.

Djlawman

I disagree lawman, this news is certainly "buzz." Amsterdam is a European hub for NW/KLM and as such, goings on there affect many of us.

My $0.02,
-levi aka eastwest

Was due to depart on OS from VIE to AMS today at 19:40. Flight was delayed until 21:00. Gate agents said it was due to a fire at Schiphol. In flight the pilot said we were delayed due to a fire an snack place in the airport. When I arrived, I saw no evidence of any fire, but I only went through terminal C to the exit. There were very few planes on the ground and only a hanful of flights due in.

The fire started at a Burger King, apparently in the french fry machine, according to ABC News.

Wasn't it a Burger King that "toasted" a chunk of a Heathrow terminal last year???

Tonight, a guy reading the news pronounced the name of the airport as "ski pole". I laughed my head off.

FewMiles..

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I was there, I landed on the 1 hour delayed BD111 and found Schiphol to be a total chaos.
Arrivals 2 and 3 were closed so all baggage had to be transported to the (rather small) arrivals 1, total chaos, 20-30 flights trying to be crammed onto 1 baggage carousel... There was only one exit open, againg total chaos there, several things really struck me as wrong..

1) Schiphol had NO means of addressing the public outside the terminal

2) Schiphol had no services outside, no toilets, refreshments etc.. even after standing outside for over 3 hours there were no services...

As this is the second major fire in 2 months I hope they will finally learn a lesson out of this...

What actually happened (according to the dutch news) is that the Flame Broiler caught fire, the air duct above the broiler was made to cope with heat but the heat at the 7th and 8th floor of the termianl building was to intense and the roof caught fire, producing huge amounts of smoke, that also entered the terminal buiding. Because the last fire at Schiphol spread so quickly the fire brigade kept the building closed until they were sure there was no risk...

Yesterday I arrived with the 90 minutes delayed 18.30 flight from Zurich to AMS. Upon arrival at the D pier at around 21.30 it was as busy as I had never seen at that time on a Sunday. Going through passport control with 100-s of others at the same time, all arriving with delayed incoming aircraft there were only 2 passport control lines open, and not even one especially for EU passports.

And last but not least many passengers got stranded at the railterminal as some trains were cancelled as well.

The fire originated in the worlds busiest Burger King restaurant. I hope Schiphol management manage to get their act up and prevent such events from happening again.

This is also the favourite with British newsreaders, the alternative being "ship hole". Same difficulty with Maastricht, which is often pronounced here either as "mass strict" or "mass trisht".

Just an interesting coincidence: There was, a few months back (maybe a year even?) a fire at Heathrow that started, also, at a Burger King.

Caused a whole terminal to be shut down a day because of smoke. Result was, of course, pandaemonium.

What is it about the fat in their fryers that makes it most combustible?

Maybe Burger King should be banned from airports altogether.