From Reuters:
ATHENS - Two airplanes due to land on the Greek island of Lesbos had to circle above the Aegean sea for more than half an hour because an air traffic controller overslept, police said on Monday.

An Olympic Airlines aircraft, arriving from the Greek capital Athens, and a Slovakian Airlines plane made several failed attempts to contact control tower personnel.

"They were calling the tower to get directions, but no one would answer," a police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "The woman later said she overslept."

The airport's secondary control service assisted the pilots to land after they had circled for 40 minutes. Police said the controller, who was not named, would be suspended for a few days.

For about a minute I was thinking those 2 pilots in Hawaii that had fallen asleep had become ATC .lol

I hope the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority takes action because this is utterly ridiculous. I fly into this airport very often, this is inexcusable.

It's not enough that most of the airports in the Greek Islands are not open 24/7 but now they can't even make it to work on time.

Ahh, looks like the foot's on the other hand now.

Yea... as a US military pilot I have such fond memories of greece in the late 80s.... crew bus bombings... taxi drivers who would charge you double rate, then dump you nowhere near your real destination... then there was the time I was flying a mission from Vencenza Italy to Corlu Turkey... and because the Greeks were in an uproar that week ....and Turkey was involved... we were forced to fly the FIR boundry all the way around greek airspace... or the time I was flying a medevac mission with a critically injured person on the aircraft from Incirlik Turkey to Athens and the Greek controllers made us hold at the FIR boundry for 30 minutes because of some confusion over our Medevac callsign...... all while the patient was near death in the back... so...NO something like this doesnt surprise me in Greece. That said I love Greece.. the food is out of this world and the country is breathtaking, my big complaint was that I just never felt welcome there... unless I was spending money of course.

I had the same experience as Herc last fall on the way out to the desert from Sig. I guess Turkey overflight means no Greek for you!

Dear fellows,

In regards to the Hellenic FIR,

1. When was the last time you guys went to Greece?
2. As far as Athens FIR. The entire Europe is controlled by Euro Control in Brussels.
3. Every plane needs a flight plan to fly over someone else airspace.
4. Did you have a filed flight plan?
5. As far as the cab drivers in Greece you are 100% correct. Have you ever hire a yellow cab from JFK to NYC. They are exactly the same.

By being in US for such a long time. I have to tell you that Americans they afraid their shadows in every aspects, and they are humans with special needs.

Of course if you were born and raise in LA (Lower Alabama), everybody outside the US are lower class people.


Finally excuse my English and my spelling, and for not being a Redneck.

At list I know my who is my father. Do you?

Y,all play nice now!
And no I,m not from LA -Lower Alabama lol
You guys want a nice place to go on vacation try CRETE .
Lived there for almost 8 years on and off .

Ok I'll bite....

I was in Athens last month. Twice. We were given a heading from KAL VOR (I think) and we just asked if we were to expect vectors from here on in and he replied: Of course. What, you want me to fly it too?!

LOL that cracked me up.

I think after 5-10 minutes trying to get through with no response, I would have kept looking for the light guns and just landed.
fbh