Cyprus airport shut after German plane stuck on runway

Paphos airport on the southwestern coast of Cyprus remained shut Friday after a German charter aircraft was stranded on the runway when its tyres blew as it landed on Thursday evening.

None of the passengers were reported hurt, but all other flights from the airport that serves mostly chartered flights of tourists were diverted to the main airport at Larnaca, 100 kilometres east.

The German LTU Airbus 321, arriving from Duesseldorf with 187 passengers and seven crew, suffered a four-tyre blow out upon landing at 18.30 local time (1630 GMT), with airport officials taking two and a half hours to clear all the debris from the runway.

The incident occurred only hours after Transport Minister Haris Thrassou laid the foundation stone of the new terminal building that should be completed by 2008 by a private consortium, Hermes Airports, at a cost of 127.5 million euros.

The same consortium will also build a new airport at Larnaca for a total cost of about 350 million euros.

Paphos Airport Civil Aviation Services Manager, Androula Christodoulou said the problem could not be fixed locally the airport authorities were waiting for spare parts from Germany.

Air safety has become a sensitive topic in Cyprus since the crash near Athens of a Helios Airways aeroplane that departed from Larnaca last August killing all 121 passengers and crew, mostly Cypriots and its German pilot.

Makis Constantinides, the director general of the Ministry of Transport said all the passengers were taken to their hotels in Paphos.