NEW DELHI: Heavy rain spell accompanied by gusty winds at Palam affected the flight operations at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Wednesday. Over 75 flights were delayed and seven flights, including a Go First flight whose windshield cracked mid-air, were diverted due to bad weather at Delhi.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), Palam logged 92.4mm rainfall between 11.30am and 5.30pm on Wednesday. The wind speed ranged from 25kmph to 45 kmph between 1.30 pm and 2.30 pm.
“Due to intense rain activity, the visibility at Palam, which was 4,000 metres at 1 pm, dropped to 500 metres at 1.50 pm. However, the visibility improved at 2.45 pm as it again rose to 4,000 metres. The major impact of the weather at Palam was from 1.30 pm to 2.30 pm,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist, IMD.
The heavy rain spell was also accompanied by thunderstorm. A met official had earlier said among all weather hazards, thunderstorm causes highest threat to aviation across the world. “During thunderstorm, the wind speed changes frequently and disturbs the alignment at runway to the aircraft,” the official said.
Of the total of seven flights diverted on Wednesday afternoon, six were diverted to Jaipur and one to Indore between 12.30pm and 2.30 pm, according to airport sources. It included a Go First Delhi-Guwahati flight after its windshield cracked mid-air but due to bad weather, the flight did not return to Delhi but was diverted to Jaipur.
However, no flight was cancelled due to bad weather. Delay of flights resulted in slowing down of the boarding process. Some passengers took to social media to highlight the problems faced by them due to flight delay.
Airlines alerted the passengers about possible delays. Vistara tweeted that "due to bad weather (heavy rainfall) expected in Delhi, arrivals/departures are likely to get impacted".
