Terror attacks: explosions in the departure hall of Brussels Airport!

[Bralo20]

What will the options be if it turns out the terminal has structural issues after the attack? Any idea what the possibilities are?
How long can an international airport remain closed?

I guess they suspect (or confirmed?) structural issues since according to some posts above they are building a temporary check-in area:

Also BAC started to build shelters near the connector (swissport side).
Apparently this will be the temporary check-in.
Rumors are that Building 5 will be a baggage claim building

So If this is correct the airport can reopen to some degree maybe after the weekend and gradually pick up pace.

How long the repairs will take is something nobody knows at this point, but I guess it will take months at least and that all depends in which shape the terminals are. You can't forget that the old terminal, in which also a bomb exploded, is almost 60 years old and thus might not be economical viable to repair if the structure is damaged. So I guess best case scenario: months, worst case scenario: +1 year (if (partial?) demolition is deemed necessary since in that case you will need new building permits, environmental studies, the current building regulations are also different compared to 60 years ago (or even 20 years ago), drawings, etc...). Maybe there's even asbestos being used in the old building (I doubt it since it was renovated about 5 years ago, but back in the old days asbestos was a popular ingredient in buildings).

It's certainly not like: a bomb has exploded, let's clean up, put a bit of cement here and there, some fresh plaster, a layer of fresh paint, some new glass and some new tiles and we are done. We all know that's not going to happen how much we all want it to be like that, that's just not realistic.

[sn26567]

The taxi driver who drove the terrorists to airport went to police right away after blast: this led to dismantling the third bomb. According to some news reports, he is a Muslim of Moroccan origin. A big thank you to him! He probably avoided further damage and loss of other lives.

[Apuneger]

Latest update from Brussels Airport:

Retrieving your car

Passengers who parked their car on car parks Discount Parking 1 & 2 (Brucargo) may come and fetch their car anytime.

Passengers who had their car parked in Front Park 1, 2 (Economy), 3 (Holiday), Reservation Zone, P4 long-term, P Lock and P VIP can retrieve their car on:

Friday 25 March 10 am - 4 pm
Saturday 26 March 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday 27 March 10 am - 4 pm

More info on http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/passng ... trievecar/

Ivan

[Bralo20]

The taxi driver who drove the terrorists to airport went to police right away after blast: this led to dismantling the third bomb. According to some news reports, he is a Muslim of Moroccan origin. A big thank you to him! He probably avoided further damage and loss of other lives.

Indeed, kudos to that guy! He definately saved people by warning the cops.

Btw: the 3rd bomb wasn't dismanteld, officially it was a "controlled detonation", unofficial something went wrong and the bomb exploded before they could dismantle it.

[Homo Aeroportus]

...
What's more: everybody flying us is upgraded to flex&fast onboard, meaning free meals and drinks, because we also go the extra smile on the air. Just a small gesture to all those people often in distress because of what's happening in Belgium and the changes it has brought to their travel plans.

Small gesture as you say but evocative of a spirit.
Some have recently proposed to re-activate the name of SABENA. I think unnecessary; its spirit is still there.

Thumbs up to all at SN for the tremendous effort of resuming Ops so quickly.

H.A.

[Flanker2]

6 days of complete closure as far as we know, ie 1.5% of the yearly operating days for 2016...
Hotels across Brussels are dealing with a huge wave of cancellations.
I think that the impact on travel will be quite heavy for a few months, just as BRU and SN were running record numbers.

IMO BRU will be ok but I'm a bit worried for SN.
When the dust settles and operations go back to normal, it wouldn't surprise me if airlines in BRU will experience an average revenue decline of 20% for the rest of the year, just for the mere fact that it could happen again anytime. That would be catastrophic for an airline like SN. In fact, the 100 million profit projection that I made would turn into a 100 million loss. Traffic recovery for the month of April will be crucial in seeing whether people will keep travelling or not.

In fact, another bigger attack on BRU within a short period of time and who would still want to book a flight out of BRU?
I don't mean to be too pessimistic, but this worst case scenario should be kept in the back of the mind. Brussels is ISIS Europe HQ, so another attack can not be excluded.

[EHAM]

Anyone knows how DHL is handling their BRU operations?

Since the attacks we've got the daily LOS flight at AMS iso BRU. We've also go several extra DHL flight from/to LEJ and EMA.

[luchtzak]

Tweeënhalve dag na de aanslagen in Brussels Airport en het metrostation Maalbeek is er allicht een doorbraak in de speurtocht naar het terreurnetwerk. De politie heeft gisteren zes nieuwe verdachten opgepakt in het onderzoek naar de aanslagen. Een van hen is wellicht de terrorist die zelfmoordterrorist Khalid El Bakraoui (26) tot in de metro heeft vergezeld, luttele minuten voor hij zich opblies.

http://www.gva.be/cnt/dmf20160325_02203 ... gn=seeding

[Passenger]

Meanwhile, the press reports that the relatives of identified victims are being informed by the police.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/36484/Aanslage ... port.dhtml

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/2547 ... den__.html

[Desert Rat]

In China, most of the airports have an "explosive sniffing" machine at the entrance of the departure area.
I'm not sure if the TATP used by the terrorist would have been detected by such a device, but security agents rub a small piece of fabric on your luggage and then they make it processed by the machine to make sure that no explosives are hidden in your luggage.

[Stij]

In China, most of the airports have an "explosive sniffing" machine at the entrance of the departure area.

Sure? I was in XMN a couple of weeks ago and there was nothing... Neither in HKG (OK, China and not China)

Cheers,

Stij

[PttU]

I'd strongly advice anybody affected by the reroutings through one of the regional airports to use the ground transport organized by Brussels Airlines: it's free (we're going the extra smile, remember?), it's convenient, it's straight to where you need to be and you will avoid parking problems or parking fees even because indeed, no regional airport is doted with sufficient parking for the influx of passengers currently experienced by them.

The full schedules of both shuttle lines to LGG and ANR can be found online:

https://www.brusselsairlines.com/en-be/ ... liege.aspx

https://www.brusselsairlines.com/en-be/ ... twerp.aspx

What's more: everybody flying us is upgraded to flex&fast onboard, meaning free meals and drinks, because we also go the extra smile on the air. Just a small gesture to all those people often in distress because of what's happening in Belgium and the changes it has brought to their travel plans.

At https://www.brusselsairlines.com/en-be/ ... ights.aspx the link to the Antwerp-schedule (at the bottom of the page) points to the Liege-schedule

[Desert Rat]

Sure? I was in XMN a couple of weeks ago and there was nothing... Neither in HKG (OK, China and not China)

Cheers,

Stij

Sure, I saw it in Chengdu, Xi'An, Hongqiao, Nanchang, Lanzhou, ...it is true that some time it is not at the entrance like in Xi'an, but between check-in and immigration.

[Stij]

Sure, I saw it in Chengdu, Xi'An, Hongqiao, Nanchang, Lanzhou, ...it is true that some time it is not at the entrance like in Xi'an, but between check-in and immigration.

OK, never experienced it...

Cheers,

Stij

[sn26567]

Testimony of one of the persons responsible for the Brussels Airport Fan Page, who was present at the airport shortly after the attacks:

3 days ago at this moment one of my personal favorite places in the world changed into the hell on earth for a moment, one hour later I was outside the hall to help people that were injured with an ambulance from the red cross. All my thoughts go to the wounded people and their families. I thank everybody that helped that day, but next to the wonderful emergency services I also want to thank everybody that did what they could or were expected to do and also all volunteers, on that day we all were a little bit the hero of the day. - Mario

[Jetter]

I'm not sure if the TATP used by the terrorist would have been detected by such a device, but security agents rub a small piece of fabric on your luggage and then they make it processed by the machine to make sure that no explosives are hidden in your luggage.

It wouldn't. http://thefutureofthings.com/3035-tatp- ... -of-satan/ "Neither existing commercial EDS, nor ETD systems, nor even dogs are able to detect with any great accuracy peroxide-based explosives (such as TATP), which lack metal or nitro groups that would make them amenable to detection by standard screening or rapid identification methods."

[Conti764]

The taxi driver who drove the terrorists to airport went to police right away after blast: this led to dismantling the third bomb. According to some news reports, he is a Muslim of Moroccan origin. A big thank you to him! He probably avoided further damage and loss of other lives.

Indeed, kudos to that guy! He definately saved people by warning the cops.

Btw: the 3rd bomb wasn't dismanteld, officially it was a "controlled detonation", unofficial something went wrong and the bomb exploded before they could dismantle it.

I can't imagine they'd detonate a bomb inside a building. You never know what might go wrong in doing so...

[Bralo20]

I can't imagine they'd detonate a bomb inside a building. You never know what might go wrong in doing so...

There's some footage: http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/183695- ... g-gebracht

[Acid-drop]

wow ...
you can imagine they were surprised of it

[Conti764]

I can't imagine they'd detonate a bomb inside a building. You never know what might go wrong in doing so...

There's some footage: http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/183695- ... g-gebracht

I knew the third IED was detonated inside the terminal. But I can't believe they did it on purpose... I guess something went wrong when examining it...

Now I know why that part of the airport was hit pretty bad as well... I always wondered if the blast alone could bring so much damage to that part which wasn't directly impacted with the first two explosions...