Fog disrupts flights in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Dozens of morning flights were disrupted as dense fog enveloped Delhi’s skyline for the first time this winter and reduced visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday.

Seven international and three domestic flights were diverted from Delhi. Five flights were diverted to Mumbai. The visibility dipped to 50 metres at around 3.30 am which prompted the airport to switch on to CAT 3B landing system in the airport.

The airport control tower announced low visibility procedure for air traffic and during this time 11 aircraft landed and 13 flights took off from the airport.

The visibility was around 50 metres between 8 and 9 am and during this time, only pilots certified for CAT 3B landing system are allowed for landing.

“During this time only Indian flights were landed because their pilots were CAT 3 B trained, the other domestic flights of private airlines started landing when the visibility was over 200 metres,” said an airport official.

k_yogesh@dnaindia.net