Finnish power line experts airlifted to Sweden to help clear storm damage

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A Swedish Air Force Hercules transport plane was used on Tuesday to airlift seventeen Finnish power line technicians to Southern Sweden. The technicians are to assist in clearing the damage caused by the weekend's winter storm, and in fixing the broken power lines.
      In Turku, two vans carrying the technicians' tools and supplies were also loaded onto the aircraft.
      The exceptional mode of transportation was chosen because the normal means of crossing the Gulf of Bothnia over to Sweden on the Seawind ferry would have taken too long.
      Another group of Finnish technicians may still follow today, Wednesday.
      The Swedish Air Force aircraft from Gothenburg landed in Turku at 12.10 and took off two hours later for Nässjö in Småland.
     
Department head Torsten Silvander from Eltel Networks, the company that the technicians work for, estimated that their job in Sweden may continue for up to three weeks.
      According to Silvander, the request for help came from Sweden on Monday at 15:30.
      Three hours later the task force had already been assigned, and they were at work in Sweden on Tuesday evening.
      On Tuesday morning as many as 150,000 Swedish households were still without power, and more than 200,000 telephone lines were dead. Denmark and Southern Sweden were particularly badly hit by the storm-force winds that blew across from the British Isles.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Storm kills at least 14 and causes damage throughout Northern Europe (10.1.2005)

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