As many as 15 flights were diverted from landing at
Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi Mondayc18 Nov owing to low
visibility conditions as temperatures dipped and smog thickened over the
Capital. Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet
were among the flights affected.
While 13 flights were diverted to Jaipur, one each
was diverted to Dehradun and Lucknow.
Sources at Delhi International Airport Limited
(DIAL) confirmed that the flights had to be diverted due to a lack of
experienced captains trained in CAT-III operation to land aircraft in poor
visibility conditions. CAT-III is a
highly precise way for airplanes to land even in poor visibility, allowing them
to descend to just 100 feet above the runway with clear guidance, and the runway
needs to be visible within 200 metres.
IGI Airport experienced dense fog, with visibility that dropped to 100-150
metres around 11 pm Sunday remaining the same until 11 am Monday.
Safdarjung Airport had a visibility of 150 m during
the same time-frame.