The worst fog in the last one decade blinded the visibility in the most part of the national Capital on Monday. The thick blanket of fog in the morning hours brought down the visibility to zero forcing authorities to suspend flight movement at the IGI Airport for around three hours. While around 150 domestic and international flights were delayed and diverted, train services too were badly hit. The minimum temperature settled down at 6.6°C, one degree below normal.
“It has been the worst spell of fog in terms of duration in the last eight years,” said a met official. Around 51 domestic and international flights departing from the city and 39 scheduled to arrive, between 8 pm last night and 8 this morning, had been cancelled due to extremely poor visibility at the airport owing to dense fog. Also 52 incoming flights had been diverted to Amritsar, lucknow and other destinations. “A SpiceJet flight from Goa to Delhi, with 132 passengers and four crew members on-board, had to make an emergency landing at around 9.50 pm as it ran short on fuel,” said an airport official.
The delay and diversions resulted in confusion among many travellers. lounges at the airport were packed with passengers who complained that they were not given information about the flight status. Moreover, long queues were seen at airline counters for collection of refunds for cancelled flights or to get a seat on any early flight. Operations of over 50 trains were also affected due to the bad weather conditions.
The minimum temperature was 1.4°C lower than Sunday’s 7.8°C, while the maximum settled at 17.6°C which was three notches below the season’s average. Delhi has been witnessing thick fog over the weekend leading to disruptions in flight operations and delay in train movement. The humidity levels oscillated between 100 per cent and 75 per cent.