Mumbai: Flight operations stayed normal on Monday at Mumbai airport. However,massive delays and flight diversions marked Sunday, with 15 flights diverted to other airports. Low visibility, heavy rains and presence of thick thunder clouds made it impossible for aircraft to make a final approach for landing. Other flights were delayed for 30-40 minutes on an average. The cascading effect of the diversions continued till way past midnight.
Around 7.30 pm, no flight operations were possible for about 25 minutes due to heavy rains, said airport officials. This forced six arriving flights, including an Air India (AI) flight from Delhi and an Indigo flight from Chennai to divert to Goa and Ahemdabad respectively. "It was the beginning of the peak traffic hour. However, pilots could not see clearly due to rain. All flights had to hold over for 25 minutes before they could make a safe approach to land," said an airport official. This created congestion and a long landing queue in the sky. Some of these flights were running out of fuel and hence, were asked to divert.
17/06/13 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India
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Around 7.30 pm, no flight operations were possible for about 25 minutes due to heavy rains, said airport officials. This forced six arriving flights, including an Air India (AI) flight from Delhi and an Indigo flight from Chennai to divert to Goa and Ahemdabad respectively. "It was the beginning of the peak traffic hour. However, pilots could not see clearly due to rain. All flights had to hold over for 25 minutes before they could make a safe approach to land," said an airport official. This created congestion and a long landing queue in the sky. Some of these flights were running out of fuel and hence, were asked to divert.
17/06/13 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India
