Delhi airport sees chaos as passengers stuck inside flights for hours amid zero visibility: Reports

Delhi weather: Flights, scheduled for departure, remained stranded at Delhi's IGI Airport due to thick fog and poor visibility, hindering take-off procedures.

Several passengers found themselves stranded inside their flights at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday, enduring hours of delay as adverse weather conditions prevented queued planes from taking off. Upon landing, several flights queued up on the runway due to the unavailability of parking spaces for these incoming aircraft, News18 reported.

Despite having landed at the Delhi airport, passengers were confined within their flights for two hours. (Vipin Kumar/HT file)

The flights, scheduled for departure, remained stranded due to the thick fog and poor visibility, hindering take-off procedures. Despite having landed at the airport, passengers were confined within their flights for two hours, the report added.

An official reported that on Sunday morning, as many as nine flights, including an international one, were diverted from Delhi airport due to the inclement weather. These diversions occurred between 4:30am and 10:30am, with the international flight initially rerouted to Mumbai but later redirected to Jaipur.

A passenger told Republic TV that her IndiGo Airlines flight to Dublin was scheduled to take off at 6am, but later it got cancelled and passengers were made to board and sit inside the aircraft for over five hours.

Meanwhile, a special IndiGo flight, through which Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, were going to travel to Manipur's Imphal for the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, was delayed due to fog and poor visibility conditions at Delhi Airport. The 'Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra' was scheduled to start at noon with a floral tribute at the Khongjom War Memorial, followed by its launch at Myay Maidan, Khongjom in Manipur's Thoubai.

Delhi, along with other parts of North India, was enveloped in a dense layer of fog on Sunday, resulting in zero visibility at various locations. The Palam Observatory near the Indira Gandhi International Airport recorded dense fog, with visibility dropping to zero meters by 5am.

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to ‘severe’ for the first time this year due to low temperatures and low wind speed over the last 48 hours.

The average AQI at 9am on Sunday was 458 (severe) – a deterioration from Saturday’s reading of 399 (very poor).