Greek aviation chief quits over Jan. 4 airspace blackout

Greece's transport ministry on Wednesday said the civil aviation chief had quit over the embarrassing January 4 airspace blackout that snarled flights for hours.

"The governor of the Civil Aviation Authority (YPA), George Saounatsos, submitted his resignation to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Christos Dimas," the ministry said in a statement.

The move came hours after the official report into the incident blamed the glitch on "obsolete technology" at Athens International Airport, one of the world's top travel destinations.

According to YPA, the malfunction began at 8:59 am (0659 GMT) on January 4 when multiple radio frequencies serving Athens airspace were hit by continuous "noise" interference.

The agency's transmitters began sending out "involuntary signal emissions", YPA said.

Athens International Airport last year handled nearly 34 million passengers, an increase of 6.7 percent over the previous year.

Hundreds of flights had to be diverted to neighbouring countries with thousands of travellers hit. YPA at the time said the problem was "unprecedented".

Officials have insisted that Athens airspace was quickly cleared of traffic, and that flight safety was not compromised.

The system returned to full operation at 5 pm (1500 GMT), with flights restored 45 minutes later, the YPA said.

No signs of a cyberattack or intentional sabotage were detected, YPA said.

A major infrastructure overhaul costing 300 million euros ($350 million) is currently underway, which includes digital transmitters that will be delivered this year.

The Athens airport tower radar dates from 1999, air traffic controllers noted.