Air, rail traffic go haywire as fog blankets Delhi

DHNS

• Rules changed to allow flight movement under reduced visibility

New Delhi, 27 December 2010: A thick cloak of fog triggered by the continuing harsh winter on Sunday wreaked havoc on the national capital and its adjoining areas, disrupting air and rail traffic for the second consecutive day and causing the death of six people here and in Uttar Pradesh.

 

As Delhites woke up on a chilly, damp Sunday morning, a dense fog enveloped the busy Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here, forcing visibility to drop to near zero and leading to delays, diversions and cancellation of 80 domestic and international flights.

 

No less than 38 flights were cancelled and 42, including 14 international flights, services diverted due to the fog, particularly in Delhi, said  Civil Aviation Secretary S N A Zaidi.  Staff at the IGI grappled with the chaos that forced the authorities to close the airport for nearly two hours when visibility on the runways fell below 100 metres on Saturday night.

 

“We are taking all steps to ensure the safety of passengers,” Zaidi said after reviewing the situation with stakeholders, including officials of airlines, the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and the Met Department.

 

The harsh winter conditions also hit train services badly, causing inconvenience to passengers, especially those waiting for trains on long-distance routes. As many as 51 trains were delayed by up to 27 hours because of the fog, an official statement said.

 

Faced with the inconvenience caused to passengers, the Civil Aviation Ministry changed its rules to allow flight movement under reduced visibility conditions. Under the new rules, the visibility range for large aircraft has been brought down from 175 to 150 metres and from 150 to 125 metres for smaller planes. While this step will facilitate flight operations and reduce delays, pilots have been instructed to observe caution to avoid accidents.

 

But the ministry made it clear that flights will not be operated if visibility is lower than 50 metres. The new regulations ensure that airlines will not allow boarding of passengers till visibility reaches 125 metres.

 

Aircraft not compliant with the 3B instrument landing system will land at the IGI airport only after 10 am when visibility is good. Four people, including a new-born baby, lost their lives due to severe cold conditions in UP’s Muzaffarnagar district. The winter chill claimed its first victim in the national capital with an unidentified man being found dead near a Metro pillar in west Delhi. Besides, one person was killed and four were injured when a car collided with a van near Rajghat in central Delhi during morning hours when fog reduced visibility.

 

While several flights were diverted to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Hyderabad, many missed their scheduled departure and arrival times. Airlines also cancelled their flights to Lucknow, Jaipur, Kullu, Mumbai, Leh, Amritsar, Patna, Chandigarh, Goa and Srinagar because of the dense fog.

 

Consequently, thousands of passengers stranded at the IGI airport complained of lack of information on rescheduled flight plans. This prompted the Civil Aviation Ministry to issue instructions to all airlines to keep their respective passengers in the loop on flight positions via SMS and email.

 

IGI sources said 300 flights, inlcuding 130 that used CAT III B instrument landing system, operated till Sunday evening. Among the international flights disrupted were those from China Air, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Air France and British Airways.

 

As dense fog started descending on the airport on Saturday night, about 17 domestic and two international flights scheduled to arrive here were diverted to nearby cities. Around seven international flights that were to land at the IGI airport were delayed by up to three to four hours, airport sources said.