Dense fog and dip in temperature on Friday disrupted the normal life, affecting air, rail and road traffic in the national capital. The maximum and minimum temperature were recorded 21.9 degree Celsius and 7.8 degree Celsius.
Flight operations came to a standstill at the Indira Gandhi International Airport after the fog reduced visibility to below 50 metres. The schedule of over 50 flights has been hit. The fog, which descended on the airport on Thursday night, become so dense by Friday morning that the runway visibility dropped to below 50 metres on both the runways rendering them inoperational, an airport official said.
Two Jet Airways flights, one from Abu Dhabi and other from Dammam and a Lufthansa flight from Munich were diverted between 5.30am and 7.30am. The visibility at the third runway (29/11) started to deteriorate from 1am, forcing the airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures (LVP). The LVP was implemented on main runway at 4.10am.
According to sources, the pilots were trained to operate flights using CATIII B instrument landing system, which helps pilot to land a plane when runway visibility is up to 50 metres. Though there were no cancellation of flights, the schedule of over 50 flights was disrupted as no flight could take off from 6 AM due to runway visibility dropping to less 125 metres, the required minimum parameter for an aircraft to take off in low visibility conditions.
Due to the poor visibility flight operations were delayed for hours. On the other hand, several Delhi-bound trains are also reported to be running late due to which passengers have to suffer a lot.
According to the Meteorological department, suspended dust particle and moisture in the air resulted in the formation of fog.
