Overlapping flights spark chaos at airport

Mumbai: Chaos reigned over Mumbai's airspace on Saturday night as two domestic flights had to be diverted and 16 others were delayed because of heavy air traffic congestion. The airspace above Mumbai and the airport itself was chock-a-block with traffic for around four hours as almost 18 flights lined up for landing at a given point of time.
Airport officials said the delays happened because of overlapping flight schedules, most of which could be attributed to fog conditions in cities like Delhi and Hyderabad. Most flights scheduled to land after 9.30 pm were affected.
"We had to divert two flights as it was impossible to clear them for landing. The chaos occurred because airlines were not operating during the allotted hours,'' said M Jhungare, general manager, Air Traffic Control (ATC), Mumbai.
"Many flight schedules overlapped and so a Go Air and a Jet Airways flight were sent back and asked to come later,'' he added.
Jet Airways flight 9W 324 from Ahmedabad had to keep orbiting above the airport for almost an hour. It was then sent back to Ahmedabad. The flight reached Mumbai at 2 am, almost three hours behind schedule. Similarly, a Go Air flight from Jaipur had to be diverted to Ahmedabad and it eventually landed here at 1.44 am instead of 11.10 pm.
"But only the arrivals were affected; all flights leaving Mumbai were on time,'' a Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said.
16/12/08 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008