Wind rips up flight schedule - RAIN-HIT CALCUTTA TOPS GLOBAL DELAY LIST

A tell-all flight display board outside Calcutta airport on Monday. Picture 
by Mayukh Sengupta 

TT, Calcutta, Oct. 9: Strong winds blowing at over 90km per hour, 200 feet above the ground, aborted landings and diverted flights from Calcutta today as a deep depression brought up to 150mm rain, flooding streets, uprooting trees and snapping power supply.

The weather system, travelling northwest, was positioned some 30km from Calcutta in the evening. The weather is likely to improve tomorrow, with the city expected to receive "scattered moderate showers", Met officials said.

Twenty-six flights were diverted from Calcutta, 13 were cancelled and about 100 delayed, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Aviation site www.flightradar24.com put Calcutta airport at the top of the world list for delay and disruption.

The highest wind speed that the Met department recorded was 60kmph, between 8.30am and 9.30am. But 200 feet above the ground, airport officials said, the wind was blowing at around 92kmph, making landing risky.

"This was a crosswind, blowing across the flight path. A gusty crosswind is the most difficult challenge to negotiate while landing," said Captain Sarvesh Gupta, a senior pilot.

"Under such conditions, the aircraft faces the danger of failing to maintain its alignment with the runway centreline."

The disruptions continued between 8.30am and 1pm, airport officials said, with most of the diversions taking place before 11.45am. A cascading effect, though, led to flight delays till late in the night.

Airport officials said that eight flights from Calcutta and five bound for the city were cancelled. More than 50 inbound flights had to be rescheduled and more than 40 take-offs were delayed. Many flights got delayed by four to five hours.

Flexes ripped apart by gusty winds fly from a steel scaffolding at Park Circus on Monday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta  See Metro

At 4.15pm, the www.flightradar24.com site's index gave Calcutta a score of 4.1. An index of 3.5 to 5 indicates "big problems", with major delays and several flights cancelled.

A number between zero and 2 indicates good flow of traffic, while one between 2 and 3.5 indicates minor problems with a few delays or cancellations. At 7.55pm, when things had improved slightly, Calcutta was second in delays behind New York.

Calcutta-bound flights were diverted to Patna, Ranchi, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Dhaka and Varanasi. After sometime, the parking lots at the Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Ranchi airports became full.

As incoming flights hovered above Calcutta, air traffic control informed the pilots that all the nearby airports were full. The flights were diverted to places like Hyderabad, Kochi and Delhi.

At least one flight made an emergency landing in Calcutta after the pilot told air traffic control that the aircraft was short on fuel and could not be diverted.

Airport sources said that around 10am, there were about 5,000 people in the security hold area because of the delayed take offs.

As the area got overcrowded, many passengers were taken to the arrival level to clear the congestion.