Schedules of 200 flights disrupted; passengers stranded by fog

New Delhi: Thousands of air travellers were today stranded at the IGI airport here after thick fog blanketed the national capital throwing schedules of over 200 flights out of gear.
The Delhi airport witnessed 54 cancellations, the highest so far this fog season, and 34 flights (21 domestic and 12 international) were diverted to Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bhopal, Bangalore, Chennai and Lahore after the runway visibility dropped to 50 metres.
A Malaysian Airlines flight (MH 191) from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Lahore around 10.30 pm yesterday when the visibility was around 50 metres.
Delays and diversions of flights caused problems not only for the airlines but also for the passengers who had wait for long hours at the airport or in the aircraft before their flight were cancelled.
A Jetlite Kochi-Delhi flight landed here 18-hours after it took off from Kochi at 6.30 pm last evening.
Dense fog started to envelope the airport around 8.30 pm last night due to which the runway visibility was reduced to 50 metres and the general visibility to zero.
The runway visibility hovered between 50 metres and 100 metres throughout the night and early this morning, an airport official said.
Airport authorities implemented low visibility procedures (LVP) around 7 pm last evening as the runway visibility of the new runway deteriorated to less than 800 metres. It was finally terminated around 11 am today, after 16 hours.
A total of 167 flights operated during the LVP, of which 81 under CAT-I instrument landing system, two using CAT-II, 16 with CAT-III A and 68 using CAT-III B ILS, the official said.
With runway visibility hovering between 50 metres and 100 metres for most of the time, no flight could take-off as the minimum limit for a flight to take off during low visibility has been fixed to 150 metres by the Indian civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
27/01/10 Zee News

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2010