VASCO: A sudden drop in visibility on Friday morning forced Goa airport authorities to divert four passenger aircraft to nearby airports including three Scheduled flights and one charter flight from Moscow.
According to Goa Airport officials, after some early morning flights successfully landed, at around 7 am there was a sudden drop in visibility as thick fog enveloped Dabolim airport. As visibility dropped less than 200 meters, Air Asia flight from Bangalore that was scheduled to land at 7.29 am had to be diverted to Hydrabad Airport. Similarly Air Asia flight from Delhi which was supposed to land to 8.16 am at Goa airport was diverted to Hyderabad airport. Later Indigo flight from Bangalore had to be diverted to Mumbai at 8.29 am. Charter flight ‘Azur’ KTK 1227 Moscow- Goa- Moscow which was supposed to land at 8.29 am was also diverted to Mumbai airport. Even several flights got delayed. Later, after 8.40 am when the visibility improved all the delayed as well as diverted flights were allowed to land in Goa.
As quite a number of flights got delayed, stranded passengers had to face undue hardships, few of them even complaint of missing their connecting flights however situation remained under control.
