Flight operations at IGI affected due to fog

New Delhi: Flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International airport here were on Thursday morning affected for sometime after the visibility reduced due to fog and also because of a stranded Cargo plane at the main runway.

The fog began to reduce at around seven in the morning and the airport authorities implemented the low visibility procedures after the runway visibility dropped to 750 metres and 900 metres for main and new runway respectively.

The visibility further deteriorated to 300 metres for main runway and 500 metres for new runway at around 0930 hrs.

The situation began to improve around 1100 hrs, when the LVP was removed, RVR was 1,200 metres and 900 metres for both the runways.

During the four hours of LVP period about 121 flights -- 109 domestic and 12 international -- operated, of which 74 operated under CAT-I and 47 under CAT-II conditions, airport officials said.

Earlier, the main runway (28/10) remained closed for over three hours after a Cargo plane developed hydraulic failure.

An Alliance Cargo flight (CD 7903), a Boeing 737-200 plane, had to return soon after taking off for Mumbai after pilot suspected some hydraulic failure at 0257 am this

morning.

As the plane landed, its tyres burst due to hard braking and it could not be towed away. The plane stayed on the runway till 0623 hrs, as airlines had to bring spare tyres and other equipment from other side of the airport, that too, on the vehicle which had a speed restriction of 15 kilometres.

During this period, the main runway remained closed and secondary runway (27/9) and the new runway were put in use.

Normal operations on the main runway could begin only after 0623 hrs.

Meanwhile, a 75-year-old passenger, travelling from Mumbai to Delhi in a SpiceJet plane died on Wednesday, soon after the plane in which he was travelling landed.

A Spicejet (SG-114) flight reached Delhi from Mumbai carrying an unwell passenger - Jung Bahadur Singh, accompanied by his son Om Pratap Singh.

The airlines asked for medical assistance and a team of doctors from the airport immediately reached the patient with an ambulance and medical help.

But after examination, he was declared dead by the doctors.