As visibility dropped to zero metres on Wednesday night, a lack of Category III (CAT III) compliant aircraft and suitably trained pilots delayed over 100 flights till Thursday morning. Twenty flights had to be diverted and 15 were cancelled.

Landings could have been made under CAT III conditions (runway visibility between 50-200 metres), but Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) said most incoming flights did not have trained pilots. As per the guidelines of regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), flights departing before 10 am should be CAT III compliant and have trained pilots.

“But most flights arriving in Delhi did not have trained pilots and flights had to be diverted to other domestic destinations,” said an ATC official. Low Visibility Procedures (LVP) were initiated at 9 pm Wednesday at the new runway (29-11) and at 9:30 pm on the main runway (28-10).

“Runway 28 reeled under CAT III dense fog conditions from 2 am till 6:30 am and the condition was worse at the new runway, 29-11,” said RK Jenamani, director-in-charge of IGI Met Department. The new runway saw dense fog from 11:30 pm on Wednesday to 7:30 am on Thursday. “Near zero visibility stayed from 4 am to 6 am, during which no flight operations could take place,” said Jenamani.

The LVP was lifted around 2 pm on Thursday, after which normal operations resumed. But by 7 pm, runway visibility had dropped to 500 meters on both runways, said the IGI Met department.

The worst hit were the passengers arriving on international flights, who had to miss their connecting flights. Anup Shrivastava, who was to land in Delhi from Abu Dhabi at 6 am, landed at noon. “I missed my connecting flight to Aurangabad,” he said.

Others missed their flights due to traffic jams. “I left my Noida home at 8 am for the 11 am flight to Bangalore. But I couldn’t make it on time,” said Sahil Patel, a passenger.

The 300-odd passengers bound for Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia Airlines’ MH 191, meanwhile, had a worse ordeal. Their flight was delayed by nearly 24 hours. The airlines said the flight — scheduled to take off at 11 pm on Wednesday — was initially delayed for only three hours due to low visibility. But it could not take off even after that and was re-scheduled again.

“We checked in again at 11 am, but were told the flight was rescheduled for 6:30 pm,” said Raman Singh, a passenger, who had been waiting at the airport since Wednesday night. Airport sources said one of the crew members was injured after meeting with a minor accident. The Airlines accepted the delay but denied the report of ‘injury’. “Due to a miscommunication with the crew, the flight had to be re-timed to depart at 7.30 pm on Thursday,” said Azahar Bin Hamid, Regional Manager, South Asia operations for Malaysia Airlines.

More Fog ahead
Dense fog engulfed the Capital since Wednesday night, throwing air, rail and road traffic helter-skelter. The night temperature was 6.5 degrees Celsius — up from Tuesday’s 5.5 degrees. The fog, which blocked the sun, however, caused a dip in the day temperature — the maximum temperature decreased by a degree to settle at 18 degrees Celsius — three degrees below normal. The met office attributed the situation to north-westerly winds over Indo-Gangetic plains. Punjab and Haryana may have ground frost in the next 24 hours. The minimum temperature on Friday and Saturday are expected to rise to 8 degrees Celsius, the maximum temperature is expected to remain around 18 degrees. “There will be thick fog on Friday morning, as the humidity will remain around 100 per cent,” said the Officer on Duty at the Safdarjung Met Department.