The Hindu : National : Flights diverted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005

National

National

Flights diverted

T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI: As the Mumbai airport has been closed following incessant rain, several foreign and domestic airline flights have been diverted to the Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai airports, throwing normal flight operations into disarray.

According to the Airports Authority of India and Air Traffic Control sources in Mumbai, more than 15 jetliners have been diverted since Tuesday afternoon because of the heavy downpour. Two Indian Airlines and two Jet Airways flights were diverted to Chennai. A Gulf Air flight, which took off from Muscat, was advised to return to the base. The dislocation was due to "poor visibility" over Mumbai airport which came down to a low of 50 metres.

Pilots, who spoke from Mumbai, said there was water logging in the operational area of the airport encompassing the vital navigational aid, the Instrument Landing System (ILS) antennae.

The main runway was inundated and the intersection area had over five feet of water. The problem was compounded by power failure.

The Air Traffic Controllers had a difficult time establishing radio contact with the pilots by the Very High Frequency radio system and through other flying aircraft, though the Mumbai-Chennai hot channel with the ATC here was functional.

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