Fog disrupts around 100 flights at Delhi airport

The schedule of around 100 flights went haywire as operations came to a virtual standstill for about three hours today after dense fog enveloped the Indira Gandhi International airport.
   
Most of the morning flights, scheduled to depart between 6.00am and 9.00am, were either delayed or had to be rescheduled as the visibility at the runway hovered between 75 and 100 metres, airport sources said.

The required minimum range of runway visibility for an aircraft to operate is 125 metres for small aircraft while it is 150 metres for large aircraft.
   
National carrier, Air India, cancelled its flight to Leh and rescheduled 17 others, while Jet Airways cancelled three flights and rescheduled five others.    

There was no diversion of flights, an airport official
said.
   
The visibility started to drop around 2.30am in the morning forcing airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures (LVP) at around 3.16am on the new runway.
   
No LVP was implemented on the main runway till 5.20am in the morning, the official said, adding so there were no diversion of flights coming to Delhi as they were able to land at the airport using various Categories of instrument landing system (ILS).
   
A total of 117 domestic and international flights operated using various categories of ILS during the LVP period, which was terminated at 10.50am.