Plane carrying vice-president Ansari hovers over Delhi for 30 mins

Stormy weather conditions in the national capital forced several aircraft, including one carrying vice president Hamid Ansari, to circle over the region for at least 30 minutes before being cleared for landing.

Ansari was returning from Nagpur by a special IAF aircraft when high velocity winds forced several flights to hover over the national capital region, airport sources said.

His aircraft was scheduled to land at the Delhi Airport at around 4:30 p.m.

Ansari was on a visit to Wardha in Maharashtra to present the International Gandhi Award for 2009 to Vijay Kumar Pannikar and the Vidarbha Maharogi Seva Mandal represented by its President Motilal Rathi.

Ansari travelled to Nagpur in a special IAF aircraft and later reached Wardha in a helicopter. He took the helicopter back to Nagpur where the IAF plane was waiting to fly him back to the national capital.

Eight domestic and two international flights were diverted to Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow and Ahmadabad due to bad weather in the national capital and several flights were delayed.