The domestic flights terminal of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport had to be closed temporarily because of smoke pollution.

A short-circuit failure occurred at the lighting switchboard room at 8:48 PM, causing the cables to melt and producing a blanket of smoke.

The airport’s firefighting brigade arrived at the scene of the incident and put the fire out. Koltsovo Airport’s ground crew decided to have the passengers in the domestic flights terminal relocated to the international terminal, from where flights to Moscow, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok departed. No passengers or airport staff were injured.

An additional ventilation system was turned on in order to get rid of the smoke in the domestic flights terminal; in under two hours’ time, the terminal was operating and servicing passengers again. All this time, both domestic and international flights were handled by the airport as usual.