Air traffic controllers at Dundee Airport were faced with the frightening scenario of losing communication with in-bound flights on Tuesday afternoon.
The dramatic incident forced ground staff to switch to an emergency transmission after the normal radio link was severed at around 1.20pm.
All flights were grounded safely but airport manager Derrick Laing informed airlines that the airport would remain closed until the cause of the fault could be established, resulting in delays and cancellations of flights.
He told The Courier: “All air traffic controllers are specially trained for every eventuality and safety is paramount.
“We took the decision to close the airport and have spoken with the airliners to let them know the situation. This has caused some disruption with flights bound for Dundee either being rerouted to Edinburgh or cancelled.”
Dundee Airport uses an external transmission point on the roof of Tayside House to relay its communication links between aircraft and the control tower.
Mr Laing continued: “The airport closed while our telecommunication engineers worked with BT to discover the fault.
“The contractors have checked the communication line from the airport to Tayside House and have not found any faults so at this stage it looks like that the fault developed somewhere inside the building.”
The airport finally reopened at around 6.20pm according to Mr Laing, who praised the way his staff dealt with the situation.