Rain disrupts landings at IGI, delays many flights

NEW DELHI: Rough weather and heavy rain in the city forced the pilot of a private airline to go around at IGI Airport after he failed to see the runway while approaching for landing. A couple of other flights had to reportedly carry out a go around as they were unable to land in heavy rain. Two bird-hit cases were also reported.

An almost continuous drizzle interspersed with short spells of heavy showers from late Tuesday night to Wednesday night saw the total rainfall in Delhi this monsoon season breach the 1,000mm mark and settle at 1,023.1mm. After 8.30pm on Tuesday, the Safdarjung observatory recorded 32.4mm rain and 15.9mm was recorded between 5.30pm and 8.30pm on Wednesday. Palam recorded 52.8mm rain, most of which was realised in a short duration around 4.30pm.

According to airport sources, the poor weather in the evening led to some flights getting delayed as they were unable to operate in low visibility. Around 4.30pm, the general visibility came down to 600m and CAT-I operations had to commence. "Due to the incessant rain, a lot of birds are also being sighted at the airport. On Wednesday, an arriving Emirates flight, EK512 reported a bird hit when it landed around 2.40am while an Indian Airlines flight IC471 from Delhi to Jodhpur also reported a bird hit when it was about to depart about 1.20pm," said sources.

According to Met predictions, parts of northwest India will continue to receive widespread showers till Friday morning. "There will be fairly widespread showers in parts of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand , west UP, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and north Rajasthan till Friday morning. Isolated heavy to very heavy showers can also be expected in HP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and west UP," said a Met official.