Chaos at airport as absence of landing system delays flights for hours

Frustrating: Angry passengers took to social media after flights were delayed on Thursday.

Mumbai: Passengers at Mumbai airport raised slogans and took to social media after flights were delayed by hours due to air traffic congestion caused by the unavailability of the instrument landing system (ILS) that guides aircraft in approaching and landing.

The chaos is expected to continue as all landings are being carried out on visual approach till June 5, while the ILS gets upgraded from 14 elements to 20 elements for better signal quality. On Friday, winds forced airport officials to shift operations to the secondary runway.

On Thursday and Friday, passengers complained of aircraft remaining on the ground from 90 minutes to 2 hours after door closure. On Friday, the departure and arrival of the flights saw delays of up to an hour.

On Thursday, the airport had issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) — an alert to aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the safety of the flight — about the unavailability of the ILS.

Delays started being reported from mid-afternoon on Thursday, and two Indigo and one Go Air flights were diverted due to congestion.

On Friday evening, the airport reported a 47-minute delay in arrivals. At 8 p.m. Flightradar24, a private airport and air traffic monitoring website, reported a delay for 169 incoming flights, and one cancellation. It also reported 290 delayed departures and two cancellations.

“There were no diversions. A change in the wind pattern required operations to be shifted to the secondary runway between 9.53 p.m. and 11.49 p.m.,” a Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said.

Ruchir Mashru, who was flying Indigo’s 6E-5924 to Goa said, “The flight was supposed to take off at 12.40 p.m. But it started moving only at 2.32 p.m.”

Jet Airways, Vistara, and Indigo tweeted about the air traffic congestion.

“The ILS has not been functioning since Thursday. Delays will depend on the minimum separation between two incoming aircraft planned by the air traffic controller,” an official from MIAL’s joint control centre said.