St Helena Airport: Flights to and from airport suspended as major incident declared over safety fears
An airport on the remote British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean has been closed.
The only airport on the island of St Helena has been closed over fire safety concerns. The airport is the primary route in and out of the island, which lies 1,200 miles (1,900km) off the south-west African coast and is home to around 4,000 people.
Officials say passenger flights will be cancelled "until at least 20 February". A major incident has been declared by the local government after checks found the airport's fire engines failed to meet international safety standards, forcing it to halt operations.
The UK government has been alerted to the situation and a specialist team has been set up on the island to work towards reopening the airport. With journeys by sea taking several days, residents now find themselves stuck and unable to fly to and from the island, and tourists face additional costs for food and accommodation.
The UK-funded airport opened in 2016 but has been beset by problems, leading a review by MPs the same year to find that British taxpayers had been "unquestionably failed" by the £285m development. Commercial flights have previously been hampered by wind conditions and the facility was labelled a "white elephant" by the Public Accounts Committee.
At a press conference, the island's governor Nigel Phillips said: "The airport fire engines have each developed faults. This degrades the level of fire cover that can be provided."
He went on to say that there was "insufficient fire suppressant that could be put onto an aircraft if needed". The government has advised people affected to contact their airlines and travel insurers.