A two-hour failure of weather equipment forced the cancellation of two flights and delayed 18 others Sunday at Juan Santamaría International Airport.
Fernando Lara, a spokesman for airport management company Alterra, said the system that transmits the data to the control tower – including wind speed and atmospheric pressure – went down between 10:30 a.m. and 12:50 p.m.
Without that information, Lara said, it is against international regulation for planes to take off and land.
Lara said the weather system that is supposed to send the data to the control tower is under the authority of the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
