Airport Chaos

Smog, runway repairs add up to flight delays






It was a mess at the airport till evening.the security area was so crowded that it is difficult to breather
A thick smog over the city left flight operations at Mumbai airport suspended on Tuesday afternoon as visibility fell below the required minimum, forcing many flights to divert or reschedule. The evening saw major delays, with air traffic congestion mounting due to a backlog of flights waiting to depart or land. The smog coincided with shortened runway operations due to maintenance work on the cross-runway intersection.

Only 19 flight movements took place in the five hours when the shortened runway was in use—13 incoming flights and six departures. The average of flight movements on the shortened runway since the past two Tuesdays has been 50. Passengers had a tough time as most departures slotted during shortened-runway operations were cancelled or postponed. The shortened runway—half the length of the main runway—was in use at around 1 pm after a portion was closed for resurfacing. But operations had to halt almost an hour later, because visibility dropped to 1,800 metres. Operations resumed two and a half hours later, only to close again in 20 minutes. The full runway reopened at 6 pm as per schedule.

“On the main runway, which is 3,400 metres, aircraft can land even when visibility is as low as 800 metres. But during shortenedrunway operations, the minimum is 2,400 metres for a Boeing 737 and 2,800 metres for ATR aircraft. Hence, there was no option but to shut down operations as the pilot could not have seen the runway because he was using the visual approach to land,’’ an official said.

Officials said visibility had fallen to 1,000 metres on Monday, raising concerns. “The disruption was expected as the smog was very thick through Monday. What’s worse, on Tuesdays there’s no assisted landing for aircraft. So low visibility means no visibility,’’ a senior commander said.

Officials said seven Jet Airways, five Kingfisher an two Jetlite flights were diverted to Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore and Aurangabad. After the main runway opened, flights clustered to land. “There were 40 arriving flights waiting to land hovering within 100 miles of Mumbai’s airspace,’’ a source said. “After these flights landed and the skies cleared, the departure queue swelled up,’’ he added.



TROUBLE ON THE TARMAC





The shortened runway, which at 1,700 metres is about half the length of the full runway, can accommodate only smaller aircraft, such as an ATR or a Boeing 737

Aircraft cannot land on the shortened runway in wet weather. Hence operations have to shut down even if there is a light drizzle

Aircraft cannot land on the shortened runway if visibility is below 2,400 metres for a Boeing and 2,800 metres for an ATR