Friday, August 12, 2011

Bird activity, rains cause several delays at Indira Gandhi International Airport

NEW DELHI: IGI Airport reported several delays on Friday morning due to increased bird activity in the heavy rain and presence of storm clouds on the approach path. Three flights had to go around due to bird hits while several others headed for the new runway were asked to delay approach as the runway could not be cleared of birds.

Palam reported 9mm rainfall till 8.30am on Friday but it was enough to disrupt normal flight operations. "Bird activity normally increases when it rains. As the insects come out, a lot of birds congregate over the airport, especially as it is an open area. On Friday, there was major bird activity around the new runway," said an airport source.

There were two cases of bird hits and another suspected bird hit case. "Around 11am, AI633 had to carry out a go-around as the flight that departed before it, AI865, reported a suspected bird hit. Half an hour later, Cam Air 115 had to make a go-around as AI469 that departed before it reported a positive bird hit. In the third case, around noon, AI333 also had to make a go-around as three dead birds were reported on the runway just before it was to land," said the source.

Officials also said as a lot of bird activity was being reported over the new runway, flights coming to land on it were routinely being asked to hold over the city as it would have been dangerous to land. "A lot of flights were delayed because of this. Each time increased bird activity was reported, the arrivals had to be held off and the birds scared away," said an official.

Adding to delays was the presence of large pockets of cumulonimbus clouds in the approach path to the airport. Several aircraft had to deviate from their set route to avoid the clouds that are known to be highly turbulent and dangerous.

"At one point, the old runway was in use along with the new runway. The main middle runway was closed for maintenance. Flights taking off towards the Vasant Kunj side of the secondary runway can only turn south as the north side falls over Rashtrapati Bhawan and is restricted air space. However, just then there was a major cloud cover to the south and aircraft were unable to use the runway. The main runway had to be pulled out of maintenance to handle the traffic; otherwise the delays would have been worse," said a source.

No comments:

Post a Comment