Chennai: Even before dawn broke on Tuesday, the grill just outside Chennai airport’s arrival terminal had dozens of people leaning on it, restlessly moving up and down as they searched for those they had come to pick up.
Hours later, they were still there, waiting.
A fire, which broke out around 2.20 a.m. at the Air Traffic Control complex, affected dozens of flights, forcing airport authorities to divert arrivals to Bangalore and Hyderabad and leaving hundreds of passengers stranded within the airport, as most departures — mainly international — were delayed by between three and six hours.
As visits to family, business conferences and holiday plans went for a toss, tired and frustrated passengers slept on their luggage trolleys, milled about the premises or attempted to read.
13/03/13 Sunitha Sekar/P. Oppili/The Hindu
