Flights at Cairo airport unaffected by huge blast nearby

On July 12, 2018, an explosion was recorded near Cairo International Airport. Despite initial reports stating that the incident affected air traffic at the main airport of Egypt, authority bodies deny the claim.

Egypt military spokesperson, quoted by several sources, claimed the blast occurred due “high temperatures” at a chemical factory near the airport. Twelve people were injured, Reuters reports.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt issued a statement on social media, denying that the incident affected flight schedules. The statement read as follows:

“Bassem Abdelkarim, The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Spokesperson, said that the explosion that occurred a while ago wasn’t in the perimeter of the Cairo International Airport. He also added that the air navigation movement is fully operational and wasn’t in any way affected.”

The airport was unavailable to provide a comment on the topic at time of publication.

CAIRO — Egyptian firefighters battled flames that erupted after an explosion at a chemicals factory outside Cairo’s main airport on Thursday, with a dozen people reported injured in a blast an army spokesman said was caused by high temperatures.

State news agency MENA quoted a security source as saying that 12 people were taken to a hospital after the blast, which occurred in a storage facility belonging to a local petrochemicals company outside the airport in the northern part of the capital.

“Due to high temperatures, an explosion happened at a petrochemicals storage belonging to the Heliopolis for Chemical Industries,” said Colonel Tamer al-Rifai, the military spokesman, in a social media posting.