New Delhi: As a thick blanket of fog and a cold wave descended on the Capital and other parts of North India for the third consecutive day, over 40 flights were cancelled and 78 of them delayed.
This led to a situation of chaos and flaring tempers at the Delhi airport. "This is not an airport, this is a vegetable market. My flight's been cancelled and I wasn't even informed," said a distraught passenger.
But it wasn't just the delays or cancellation that frayed tempers, luggage was missing, passengers were refused ticket refunds and were not even given food.
Sources say that at around 0400 (IST), information counters at the airport were either empty or unhelpful. The callousness of the airport authorities in assisting the passengers led to a scuffle.
And it seemed the airport authorities were doing little to win brownie points. "The authorities asked us to start breaking the glass if we want the ministry to wake up, " a passanger complained.
With the visibility at the runway down to 50 metres, flights of several international airlines, including Luftansa, could not land at Delhi airport and had to be diverted.
The chaos at the airport continued as the day rolled on and some of the passengers were left waiting in the airport for almost 24 hours, before flights finally took off.
The foggy conditions are expected to continue and temperatures likely to stay at about 16 degrees celsius, which is a good seven degrees below normal.
The minimum temperature forecast for Sunday is in the range of six degrees, while maximum temperature on Friday was 15.3 degrees celsius, eight degrees below normal.
Helpline number for Delhi flight disruptions-
9818177008
Air Deccan flights delayed due to fog and poor visibility at New Delhi on 25 December 2005-
For updated information about flights, passengers may either logon to- http://www.airdeccan.net/air/flifo_common.asp or call the above mentioned helpline.
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