 "aviation, flight, fog")
The government sprang into action as intense fog in northern India continued to disrupt flights across routes leading to long delays and cancellations. Setting up war rooms at six major airports topped the list of steps taken by the civil aviation ministry on Tuesday. This came after a total of more than 2,500 flights to and from Delhi were impacted since Sunday with just Tuesday’s tally at 781 till 9.30 pm.
Earlier in the day, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), which is an independent department under the civil aviation ministry, issued show cause notices to IndiGo and Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), citing multiple violations of security rules and inadequate arrangements in handling passengers. The trigger for the BCAS move was a Goa-Delhi flight that diverted to Mumbai on Sunday night due to fog. A video of passengers of this flight eating food on the Mumbai airport tarmac had gone viral on social media on Monday.
In another instance of aviation chaos, a passenger was recently found assaulting a pilot who had announced a flight delay due to poor weather conditions.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made a series of announcements on Tuesday. Besides the decision on setting up war rooms to address passenger issues immediately, Scindia posted on X (earlier Twitter) that fog-related incidents must be reported thrice a day and that there should be sufficient CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) presence in all airports. The minister also committed to making a runway at the Delhi airport fully capable of handling flight landings amid low visibility.
In fact, in an unusual turn of events, Scindia had held a midnight meeting with officials. A ministry statement said: ‘’After a video of passengers eating on the tarmac at Mumbai Airport went viral on social media, the minister (Scindia) held a meeting with all ministry officials at midnight yesterday. In the early hours of January 16 (Tuesday), the Ministry of Civil Aviation's BCAS issued show cause notices to Indigo and Mumbai Airport."
The Aviation Ministry has asked IndiGo and the Adani Group-led MIAL to send the replies to notices on Tuesday itself. "If replies are not received in the given time, enforcement action including financial penalty will be initiated," the ministry added.
The notices issued to IndiGo and MIAL accused them of not being "proactive in anticipating the situation and making the appropriate facilitation arrangements for passengers at the airport”.
More From This Section
The minister also said that the Runway 29L at the Delhi airport was made fully operational on Tuesday to handle CAT-III landings. CAT-III instrument landing system allows pilots to land flights when visibility is as low as 50 meters.
Although a runway has two approach ends, only one end of the 29L runway was able to do CAT-III landings till now as the other end was obstructed by cranes and construction work. These cranes were hampering the localisers (navigational aids) that are needed to do CAT-III landings. This runway can now do CAT-III landings from both ends.
Runway 29L and 10/28 are the two out of four runways at the Delhi airport that have the capacity to do CAT-III landings. Runway 10/28 has not been operational since mid-September as it is being refurbished. Scindia had on Monday asked the GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to expedite refurbishment of runway 10/28. On Tuesday, he reiterated that this runway would be operationalised once re-carpeting is done.
Elaborating on the incident of passengers eating on the tarmac of the Mumbai airport, an official explained that Goa-Delhi flight, 6E2195, departed from the Goa airport at around 11 pm on Sunday after more than 12 hours of delay. It was then diverted to Mumbai. Passengers from this flight were permitted to disembark on the tarmac at Mumbai airport. Subsequently, they remained there. Many of them sat there and ate food.
These passengers were then directed to board another IndiGo flight, 6E2091, without undergoing mandatory security screening, the notices stated. The 6E2091 was heading to Delhi.
As per the notices, the aircraft handling IndiGo's Goa-Delhi flight was allotted a remote bay C-33 instead of a contact stand, which is an aircraft parking stand suitable for walking passengers to and from an aircraft from an allocated boarding gate. This further added to passenger woes and deprived them the opportunity to avail basic facilities like rest rooms and refreshments at the terminal.
"This resulted in an unfavorable, unacceptable experience for the tired and harassed passengers. The flight operation was planned and executed without taking passenger convenience, laid down security norms and the operational issues into account," the notices mentioned.
Moreover, both -- IndiGo as well as MIAL -- did not inform the BCAS about this incident, which is mandatory under security rules. The MIAL also did not forewarn the CISF's Aviation Security Group about the situation related to the Goa-Delhi flight.
India’s aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday had asked airlines to give real-time updates on flight delays, as it issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) in the wake of severe disruptions caused by fog since Sunday morning and flared tempers among passengers.
In the SOP, the DGCA has asked airlines to cancel flights that are anticipated to be delayed or are delayed for more than three hours on account of fog or other adverse weather conditions. This will help obviate “congestion at the airport and mitigate passenger inconvenience”, it noted.
It has also asked airlines to sensitise their airport staff to “suitably communicate with and continuously guide and inform the passengers about flight delays”.
