Dense fog makes a comeback, leads to air traffic congestion

The Indira Gandhi International Airport witnessed dense fog on Friday morning. There was, however, not much flight disruption.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport witnessed dense fog on Friday morning. There was, however, not much flight disruption.

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Fog started descending at the airport on Thursday night and by 4.30am on Friday, the airport was shrouded by dense fog with visibility going below 600 metres.

Low-visibility procedures were implemented at 6.13am after visibility further dipped to 200 metres.

Visibility improved only by 11.30am, after which LVP was removed. During the LVP period, a total of 179 flights were operated using the Category I and II Instrument Landing System, which guides pilots to land in poor visibility.

Though the fog led to air traffic congestion and some delays, there were no flight diversions or cancellations due to fog at the airport.

However, due to dense fog at Lucknow, three flights headed for the Uttar Pradesh capital were diverted to Delhi.

Kingfisher’s Mumbai-Lucknow flight (IT3169) was diverted to IGI airport, apart from two Delhi-Lucknow

flights — one Jet Airways and the other Kingfisher — had to return to the IGI airport as poor visibility due to fog prevented them from landing at Lucknow.

The Met department has predicted dense fog at the airport at around 6am on Saturday.