Heavy downpour throws flight operations into disarray

Pelting rain on Saturday sent flight operations at Mumbai airport into a tizzy with most flights after 12.30 pm witnessing a delayed landing and seven flights having to go around. “A Jet Airways flight from Delhi had to go around twice due to poor visibility at Mumbai airport while a Rajkot to Mumbai Jet Airways flight had to be diverted to Vadodara, again due to poor visibility,” said an air traffic control manager official of Mumbai airport.

Meanwhile, Jet Airways sent out a message to passengers on social media saying, “Due to air congestion, flights are delayed by 45 minutes and this will continue till 10pm on Saturday.” While Mumbai airport officials informed that all flights were delayed by 30 to 40 minutes on Saturday because of poor visibility at the airport.

Officials informed that at times, the visibility was below 800 metres and after 12.30 pm, many times, it went down further and then jumped up. Cloudy skies and thundershowers coupled with constant water on the runway led to flights waiting for landing. Flights queuing up led to congestion in the sky and flight slots were also affected, informed an airport official. Till 5pm, a total seven aircraft had to go around before landing while all departing flights took off late as they were also delayed arriving.