Flight schedules go haywire as dense fog cuts visibility to 50 m at city airport
Times of India | 24 January 2025
12 Kolkata: Dense fog over Kolkata and low visibility at the airport disrupted flight schedules on Thursday. Twelve flights were diverted and 60 delayed.
"The arrival of 21 flights was delayed and departure of 39 flights was pushed back due to poor visibility. Two aircraft that had been pushed back for take-off returned to the ramp," said airport director Pravat Ranjan Beuria. The cascading effect of the delays continued throughout the day, another official said.
Officials reported that visibility at the airport began dipping at 5 am when one could see up to 700 m. "Half an hour later, the visibility plunged to 50 m, bringing flight operations to a halt. It remained this way until 8.30 am. The situation started improving around 9 am, when it inched up to 100 m. Half an hour later, it improved to 400 m, followed by 600 m at 10 am and 900 m at 10.30 am," said an airport official.
Airport Met office director G K Das warned of fog again on Friday. "The large patch of fog is still hanging over Kolkata. The easterly wind has led to moisture incursion in the Bay of Bengal, creating conditions favourable for fog," he said.
Due to the diversions and delayed starts, passengers were left frustrated, and many took to social media to share their angst. "4 hrs and running waiting for my flight to take off but it keeps on getting delayed. Even my sister-in-law's flight was delayed by 12 hrs. Complete chaos here," wrote Akhilesh Jain on X.
Another X user, Mayank, wrote at 9.16 am: "Flight 6E245 is yet to take off from Kolkata airport, and we have been sitting cluelessly inside the aircraft for 4 hrs already. No clear communication on when the flight takes off."
Airport officials said low visibility procedures were implemented. "Dur-ing periods of reduced visibility below 800 m, the Air Traffic Control activates Low Visibility Procedures (LVP). Under these conditions, ‘Follow-Me' vehicles assist aircraft in navigating to their designated stands. LVP activation also occurs when cloud cover descends beneath 200 feet," the official said.