UrBC, Yekaterinburg, November 18, 2016. Passengers had to evacuate from Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport due to smoke, the airport’s official representative Dmitri Tyukhtin informed UrBC.

According to Tyukhtin, passengers (some 100 people altogether) had to transfer from the boarding area back to the airport lounge.

‘Smoke was detected in the switchboard room at the airport domestic flights baggage claim area. All the electric appliances were switched off at once, but some smoke escaped to the domestic flights terminal boarding areas, so passengers had to leave to facilitate airing. Everything is back in working order now, the passengers are back at the gates, and one flight actually departed already. The smoke did not affect the airport performance in any way,’ Tyukhtin said.

The passengers had to wait in the airport lounge for about half an hour before going back in, he added.