Sydney Airport grounded following traffic control tower fire

Sydney Airport was grounded this morning following a fire that was detected in the air traffic control tower prompting the evacuation of all 20 employees.

At around 11:40am local time, airport emergency services were called to the tower to investigate the presence of smoke in the tower.

With the tower being unmanned, flights wanting to arrive at the airport were forced to enter a holding pattern or divert to the nearest suitable airport.

Air Services Australia released the following tweets regarding the situation:

The Sydney Air Traffic Control Tower has been evacuated after smoke was detected. There is a full ground stop in place with no aircraft departing or arriving at this time @SydneyAirport. We will update you as soon as we know more. pic.twitter.com/Riw1l59tDP

— AirservicesAustralia (@AirservicesNews) March 29, 2019

A later update from Air Services cleared the airport to resume operations and flights are now being processed by employees that are returning to their stations.

UPDATE: 12:37 – Firefighters have cleared staff to return to the Tower. We expect to be operational in the next 10 mins.

— AirservicesAustralia (@AirservicesNews) March 29, 2019

Passengers waiting in the aircraft on the ground told media that a large collection of fire trucks were surrounding the tower, however no smoke was visible from the outside, indicating a small, contained fire.

As the tower re-opened just before 1:00pm local time processing flights at a slower rate, emergency services updated media with the situation stating a backup battery package that covers computers in a power outage began to smoke and emit a “nasty electrical burning smell”.

Electricians are currently working in the tower to remove and replace the damaged battery.