Chaos at Delhi airport as radar breaks down

New Delhi: There was panic at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Saturday following an Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar failure. About 40 flights were delayed, creating a backlog that led to acute congestion in the air and serious safety concerns.
The problem started when one of the three radars of the ATC started malfunctioning. It took 45 minutes to fix it, but that was enough to throw the entire air traffic to and from IGI airport off gear. Two international flights were also delayed for four hours. The Director-General of Civil Aviation asked all aircraft to carry extra fuel. The reason: they might have to hover above the airport as runways were clogged.
The backlog could not be cleared till late Saturday evening. Almost all airlines suffered a delay of one-two hours.
Airport officials said that after the service radar tripped, there was a backlog of about six hours at the airport and mostly the flights operating from the domestic terminal were hit.
09/12/07 Vijaita Singh/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports Dec 2007, Safety Dec 2007