Airport grounded as landing system kaput on 1st dense fog day

While the visibility was good enough for flights to land under Category-III conditions (when the runway visibility range is between 50 and 200 metres),the failure of Runway Visual Range (RVR) measurements led to chaos at the airport. Due to the technical snag,no flight could land or take off from midnight till 10 am on Saturday.

The situation took a turn for the worse again by 9.30 pm on Saturday as visibility dropped to 100 metres,stalling all operations at IGI,officials said.

A statement issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) earlier in the day said,“Working of RVR equipment on Runway 29 got affected due to damage to cables; RVR equipment for Runway 11 became unserviceable at 2.17 am and became usable only at 10.40 am.”

Seventeen flights were diverted and 27 departures were rescheduled during this period,the DGCA statement said. Almost 200 flights were delayed on Saturday evening owing to a huge backlog of flights that had to be cleared by the air traffic controller in Delhi.

V Somasundaram,executive director,air traffic management,Airports Authority of India,told Newsline that there was a problem with the Instrument Landing System,maintained by the IGI Airport’s meteorological department.

A senior ATC official said,“There was a problem with the last point contact between the RVR machine and the aircraft. The Met department as well as the airport operator are working towards rectifying it.”

R K Jenamani,director-in-charge,IGI Met Department,said Category-III operations could not be carried out from 2.17 am till 10.29 am.

As many as 200 flights (both domestic and international) got delayed; 18 were diverted and 23 flights cancelled due to the equipment failure. The delay time ranged between two to 15 hours.

Officials expect the same conditions to remain for the next 24 hours.

“Although weather conditions permitted CAT-IIIB operations,these could not be undertaken due to non-availability of RVR measurements from one station out of three on both runways 28/10 and 29/11,” a spokesperson for airport operators Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said. “RVR is measured at the start,mid-point and end of each runway.

“The RVR equipment is operated and maintained by the Meteorological Department.”

Zaid Ali Khan,who was scheduled to travel by Kingfisher flight IT3156,said,“The crew members have no idea when the flight will take off.”

Jenamani said,“Standby system for making RVR equipment for Runway 10 operational is being airlifted from Pune by the first available flight.”

17 flights diverted

200 flights (approx) delayed on Saturday due to backlog