Q COSTARICA — Minutes before 11:00 am, the announcement came over the loudspeakers at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO): the radar issue at the control tower has been fixed, and flights will slowly start getting back on track.
Aeris, the company that runs the San José airport, posted on social media advising passengers to reach out to their airlines for details on any flight changes.
The same is occurring at the Guanacaste Airport.
What happened?
Just after 6 a.m. this Wednesday morning, Costa Rica’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that the country’s airspace was closed.
They confirmed an electrical failure had taken out the radar at Santamaría, which knocked out control over the entire airspace — including the Guanacaste Airport in Liberia.
As a result, dozens of flights heading in and out of Costa Rica’s two international airports were delayed, canceled, or rerouted.
Read more: Costa Rica closes airspace after radar system loses power
Controllers had already warned about recurring radar failures on the Juan Santamaría
The Union of Professional Approach Controllers of Costa Rica (SIPROC) has released a statement about the airspace closure, calling the situation “critical” and warning that it threatens the safety of the country’s national airspace.
SIPROC explained that since June, they’ve met with Efraim Zeledón Leiva, Minister of Public Works and Transportation(MOPT), and Marcos Castillo Masís, Director of Civil Aviation, to raise concerns about persistent problems with the airport’s radar and communications systems.
The controllers say they warned these issues might cause a complete system failure—like the blackout that happened on the morning of Wednesday, September 24, which was fixed by 10:54 a.m.
“Safety is non-negotiable!” the union declared, criticizing authorities for ignoring their warnings. They say they can no longer work under conditions that put operational safety and lives at risk.
“This situation can’t go on. It demands an immediate and responsible response from those in charge,” the statement concludes.
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