New Delhi: The weather wreaked havoc on air travel on Saturday. The dense fog meant a number of flights were delayed and diverted. In one case involving the national carrier, a pregnant woman collapsed after spending eight hours without food or water.
It was a harrowing eight hours for Radha, whose flight from Oman was to land in Delhi at )200 hrs IST but was diverted to Jaipur because of the fog. Shockingly, the flight crew disembarked, abandoning the passengers, leaving them holed up inside the plane without any food or water.
It was only when Radha collapsed that she was allowed to leave and get medical help. Meanwhile, airport authorities are on the defensive.
Jaipur Aiport Director, Anuj Agarawl says, "Compared to last year, things have improved 100 per cent. Last year there was more congestion. We have also created facilities for water, toilets etc for the convinience of the passengers."
The situation was no better at the Delhi airport with the runway visibililty dropping to less than 125 metres. Over 40 flights were delayed and several cancelled and passengers stranded at the airport blamed the airlines for the mess. They said that none of the airlines bothered to send them SMS alerts to inform them that the flights would be late.
Not just departures, arrivals were affected due to the fog too despite having CAT 3B compatible aircrafts that can fly in low visibility. This was because one of the stations that measures runway visibility was not functioning on Saturday.
Airport authorities say further delays are expected as visibility could fall further. It's the same scenario being repeated year after year and passengers can only hope that the situation is better managed in the days to come.
Comments
0 comment