Runway at Gran Canaria airport blocked by plane with faulty brakes

A runway at Gando airport was blocked for an hour and a half yesterday after a Binter Canarias flight from Gran Canaria to Fuerteventura had to be aborted as it was about to take off due to overheating brakes.

According to air traffic controllers (ATC) via their official X (Twitter) account, the aircraft requested help from firefighters from the Gando terminal, forcing airlines and ATC to work for over an hour and a half with only one runway.

Image: Angela Arenberg

The controllers explained in their tweet that they had to “operate with only runway 03L for over 90 minutes, taxi some planes around the runways to reach the 03L holding point again, widen the spacing between planes, and in the meantime, attend to a medical emergency.”

Fortunately, everything ran smoothly with minimal disruption and delays, and no one was injured during the incident.