Storm brings Frankfurt airport to standstill

Traffic at Germany's Frankfurt airport came to a complete standstill Sunday, with all flights cancelled for several hours, as freezing rain lashed the runways and created ice problems for the aircraft, AFP reports.Hundreds of flights were cancelled from around 1540 GMT as it was no longer possible to prevent ice from forming on the aircraft, an airport spokesman told AFP.De-icing operations restarted at 1900 GMT and traffic slowly resumed at the rate of about 10 incoming flights an hour and outgoing on a case-by-case basis, the spokesman said.The formation of ice poses a great security risk as it weighs down the planes and makes them less aerodynamic.The air traffic halt forced Frankfurt-bound flights to divert to other airports.Frankfurt's air traffic movements will still be affected on Monday, largely due to the flights that were diverted elsewhere."There are planes that should normally be in Frankfurt now and which are God knows where," the spokesman explained.