Dense fog disrupts flight operations in Calcutta for more than two hours
Telegraph | 3 February 2025
Flight services in Calcutta were disrupted on Sunday morning for more than two hours because of dense fog.
Airport officials said 11 flights were delayed because of low visibility. Although flight operations were not stalled completely, but “low visibility procedure” had to be implemented between 5.40am and 8am.
Low visibility procedure (LVP) is a set of guidelines prepared by the directorate general of civil aviation that helps pilots operate flights in poor weather conditions. “This includes slower movement of vehicles in the apron area,” said an official.
“Because of the fog the LVP was implemented from 5.40am to 8am,” said the official. He said 10 flights that were to take off got delayed, while one arriving in the city was affected.
Dense fog was reported from Dum Dum and surrounding areas in North 24-Parganas on Sunday morning, the Met office said. Other parts of Calcutta had shallow to moderate fog.
“If visibility is less than 200 metres, it is called dense fog. When the visibility drops to less than 50 metres, it is very dense fog,” said a Met official.
A combination of moisture, clouds and light wind contributed to the formation of the dense fog.
The moisture was being provided by the anticyclonic flow of winds from the Bay of Bengal, said the official. Moisture-laden winds were dominating the lower level of the atmosphere, he said.
The situation is likely to improve from Monday. There will be a significant drop in moisture incursion, said the Met official.
In January, there were several days when fog had delayed flight operations. On January 23, more than 60 flights were delayed because of poor visibility.
Calcutta airport has Category II Instrument Landing System which helps flights operate at a visibility of 50 metres. “However, even if the visibility is just more than 50 metres, LVP has to be implemented for safety reasons,” said an airport official.
Sunday morning’s disruption caused the delay of other flights later in the day.
A group of eight passengers had arrived at Calcutta airport at 9am to take the Air India flight to Jaipur which was scheduled at 11.50am.
“Now we have come to know that the flight is delayed,” said one of the passengers, a resident of Salt Lake’s AA block.
Two friends from Mumbai, both businessmen who had come to Calcutta on January 29, were also stuck at the airport. They were to take the Air India Express flight to Guwahati which was scheduled to take off at 11.10am but got delayed.
“We reached the airport from our hotel in New Market at 8.30am. There is still no information when the flight would leave,” one of them said on Sunday morning.