Plane left stranded as controller on holidays

The pilot of a passenger plane tried to land at an airport in southern Sweden - but found no one at the control tower to give him clearance.

The controller had failed to return from his holiday, and no one had noticed that the tower was not staffed.

The Scandinavian Airlines Systems flight carrying 30 passengers from Stockholm was left to circle the Krisianstad airport yesterday while central traffic authorities called in another controller.

About 30 minutes later, the Dash Eight aircraft finally landed safely at the airport, about 280 miles south of the capital.

"There was never any danger to the passengers or crew. There were plenty of alternative airports and the aircraft had fuel enough to divert to many of them had it been necessary," an SAS spokeswoman said.

The tower management said the controller who was supposed to be in the tower had not returned from holiday due to confusion about the schedule.

Officials did not notice the controller was missing until the call from the SAS pilot. The SAS flight was the first scheduled to land during the missing controller’s shift and the first flight of the day.