Passengers Delayed 24 Hours After Sinkhole Opens Up on Greek Airport Runway

A runway sinkhole created chaos at Rhodes International Airport in Greece on Tuesday, Sep. 22, 2015.

A sinkhole opened up on a runway at Rhodes International Airport in Greece on Tuesday, causing the airport to temporarily shut down.

Some of the stranded passengers, many of them vacationers from the UK, were delayed for 24 hours as they waited for contractors to repair the runway.

"The airport was closed for 14 hours, the runway has since been repaired and reopened at 6:00 a.m. this morning (UK time)," Thomson Airways, one of the airlines affected by the closure, said in a statement. Contractors took 10 hours to repair the eight-meter hole. Once the hole was filled, flights resumed within an hour.

The sinkhole was caused by a crack previously on the tarmac that had been repaired, but reopened, growing much larger after the torrential downpour.

Travelers complained of long lines, a lack of information, and poor organization for passengers who were stranded overnight.