Fog causes misery to air travellers

Bangalore: Triggering absolute chaos at the city’s HAL Airport on Tuesday, over 20 domestic and international flights were stranded — some on the air, many on the ground — as the fog at dawn reduced runway visibility to below the prescribed minimum standards.
The space-starved departure and arrival terminals were a sea of frustrated passengers. The arrival of international carriers Gulf Air, British Airways and Air Arabia was delayed by over an hour. The British Airways flight from London was diverted to Chennai. Several flights scheduled to depart at about 6 a.m. could leave only after 8 a.m., when the weather cleared.
Delayed for two hours were the departures of seven Kingfisher flights, three of Jet Airways, two of Indian, six of Air Deccan and two of Indigo, Air Traffic Control (ATC) sources told The Hindu.
Built and upgraded to handle a maximum of 700 passengers an hour, the airport terminal building and the people who manned it were in for a shock. Over 2,000 passengers crammed into every available inch of space. The overstretched facility just could not handle the rush, admitted the airport officials.
07/11/07 Rasheed Kappan/The Hindu

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Categories: Airports Nov 2007, General Aviation Nov 2007, Safety Nov 2007