Air-traffic controllers could face four years in jail

The background to this was what the prosecutor, Amparo González, has called a "pantomime". There was a labour relations conflict between the national government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the air-traffic controllers which escalated at the start of December 2010. An assembly of 2 December called by the UCSA union in the Balearics considered a strategy of "pulling the plug", meaning that from 3 December controllers started a process of stopping work, claiming medical reasons. This was the pantomime.

Over two days, 472 flights at the three Balearic airports were cancelled and Spanish airspace was closed. Normality returned when the government brought in the army and the Guardia Civil. With their intervention, the controllers returned to work.

The prosecution service is calling for compensation for more than 300 people who were affected and who have been identified in the case against the controllers. The amounts are typically for some 3,000 euros for damages and for having missed events, such as concerts, which had been booked. In one instance, the demand is for 60,000 euros for a passenger whose mother died and who was unable to get to her funeral.