Glass shatters at airport terminal

SEVEN panels of a glass exterior shattered yesterday morning, with tiny pieces suspended above the ground at Terminal 2 at Hongqiao International Airport.

The accident raised fears among passengers who thought they might be hit by glass raining down from the terminal's glass wall.

It also sparked doubts about the terminal's construction quality, as several glass panels have shattered since it was put into use in March last year.

No glass fell to the ground yesterday.

A passenger who was waiting for a flight at the terminal at 9am said on the microblog weibo.com that he found a chunk of the terminal's glass wall broken into pieces.

The passenger said he took a short walk from the No. 20 boarding gate to the No. 40 gate and was terrified to find that another six glass sections were also broken, with pieces suspended within the structure.

A man who claimed to be a staff worker at the airport said on the microblog that he frequently saw other workers replacing the glass exteriors with new ones at the terminal.

"There must be something wrong in the glass as they exploded only about one year and a half after they were installed," said a passenger surnamed Huang.

In response, the airport authorities said they would invite inspectors to look into the incident.

Staff workers will also patrol the terminal to repair or replace broken glass, they said.

The airport's Terminal 2 was completed on March 16 last year with some 15,000 pieces of glass exterior, with a total area of 60,000 square meters. Since the terminal was put into use, very few glass panels have "exploded," airport officials said.

The officials insisted that the passengers didn't have to worry about the glass walls because they used dual-paned glass, which has a very low risk of breaking.

And even when glass panels do burst, the tiny pieces are held together by an adhesive, with some still attached to the frame, officials said.

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