Several hundred passengers were stranded at Dabolim International Airport after flights failed to take off and nearly 16 flights had to be diverted due to bad weather conditions. Poor weather conditions paralysed the airport for over four hours in the afternoon.

Goa Airport Director B C H Negi said that 16 flights which were supposed to land at the airport were diverted to different destinations like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai after low clouds formed in the landing area. Negi said that flight operations were stopped between 2 pm and 6 pm.

With several hundred passengers stranded at the airport, airline companies were asked to make arrangements to fly them out. “Airlines companies were working out arrangements to fly out passengers at the airport. They will be either combined in different flights or taken by scheduled flights,” Negi said.

The Director said that the exact number of flights that were cancelled could not be known at this juncture.