PANAJI: Thick fog disrupted operations at Goa International Airport, Dabolim, on Saturday morning, delaying several flights and prompting authorities to cancel a charter with tourists on board.
Two flights were diverted and one was cancelled after it was diverted to Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, reports The Times of India.
Sources said visibility at Dabolim was limited to less than a mile, affecting landing and take-off operations.
“The delay had a cascading effect on other flights because aircraft have to be rotated. It is difficult to say how many passengers were affected,” airport director B C H Negi said.
The Oman Air Muscat-Goa flight 209 was diverted to Hyderabad and arrived Goa at around 11.10am.
A charter flight, operated by FlyDubai, with around 150 passengers on board, was forced to divert to Karachi. The flight was later cancelled by the charter operator.
Recently, fog had delayed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s flight to Goa for the eight BRICS summit. On October 2, six flights, including the first chartered flight of the tourist season from Russia, were diverted to Bengaluru and Mumbai due to thick fog and poor visibility at Goa International Airport.
Airport authorities denied that the poor visibility was due to smog, stating that there was no evidence of pollution being the cause behind the haze.
