First fog of season causes several flight delays

More than 100 flights were delayed, eight were cancelled and 15 others were diverted at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport as Delhi-NCR witnessed season's first dense fog on Wednesday. Visibility across the national capital as well as National Capital Region reduced considerably, slowing down not just the movement of flights but also movement of trains and vehicles on streets. The 15 flights that were diverted also included an International flight.

"102 flights were delayed due to the sharp drop in runway visibility, forcing the airport authorities to switch to operations under LVP," airport officials said. The visibility was recorded at 800 metres at 5:30 am, which dropped to 200 metres three hours later, airport officials added.

Airport officials, on condition of anonymity, admitted that even they were taken aback by the sudden arrival of dense fog adding, they were anticipating dense fog to hit the capital only next week.

According to railway officials, over 50 Delhi-bound services from Patna, Ranchi, Howrah, Bhubaneswar and other places were also affected due to the thick fog cover.