Paris Airport Charles de Gaulle Closes Terminal Due to Snow

On Friday, a part of the Paris Charles de Gaulle aiport was evacuted. It was evacuated due to the heavy accumulation of snow on the roof of the building of Terminal 2E. In addition, hundreds of flights were canceled because of a shortage of glycol, the main ingredient of de-icing fluid.

About 2000 passengers were moved from the terminal to other areas of the airport. The authorities called the measures "preventative." Part of the roof of that same terminal collapsed in 2004. This happened shortly after the new state-of-the-art building was inaugurated. At the time, media reports said that four people were killed. It seems that they haven't improved the construction of the terminal's roof if they believe that they have to take measures to keep people safe in case of a collapse.

Almost a foot of snow had fallen on the roof on Friday at the time that authorities decided to close the terminal. People are working to clear the snow and to reopen the terminal.

French authorities asked airline earlier on Friday to cancel half their morning flights to and from the airport due to de-icing fluid running low. This led to a cancellation of 400 flights in the morning.

Early in the afternoon, the authorities asked airlines to also cancel a third of their flights for the rest of the day. This is a pretty big problem as Charles de Gaulle is the second biggest airport in Europe. Only London Heathrow is bigger. Luckily, for those who need to get to France, Paris' second airport, Orly, hasn't had to cancel any flights.