Fog disrupts Delhi airport ops; 118 flights cancelled, 16 diverted
New Delhi (PTI): At least 118 flights were cancelled, 16 flights diverted and 130 services delayed at the Delhi airport on Tuesday as dense fog disrupted operations.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), operated by DIAL, handles around 1,300 flights daily.
An official said 60 arrivals and 58 departures were cancelled while 16 flights were diverted at the airport.
Information from flight tracking website Flightradar24.com showed that 130 flights were delayed on Tuesday morning at the airport and the average delay time for departures was around 28 minutes.
In a post on X in the morning, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said all flight operations continue as normal and flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected.
CAT III compliance allows pilots to operate flights in low visibility conditions.
Against the backdrop of fog and low visibility conditions, the civil aviation ministry on Tuesday said airlines have been instructed to strictly comply with passenger facilitation norms.
These include "timely flight information, meals for delayed passengers, rebooking or refunds in case of cancellations, no denial of boarding after timely check-in, baggage facilitation and prompt grievance redressal".
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
