KOCHI: The flight services to the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) at Nedumbassery were affected in the early hours of Thursday due to heavy fog. As many as seven flights - five international and two domestic - scheduled to land at the Kochi airport were diverted to other airports due to low visibility at runway from 2 am, the airport spokesman said. However, the take-off of flights from the airport was not affected, he said. The flight services were restored by 6.30 am after the climate condition improved.
According to CIAL spokesman, 6e68 Indigo flight from Dubai was diverted to Coimbatore airport and 9w561 Jet Airways flight was diverted to Bangalore airport. The wy225 Oman Airways flight from Muscat landed at the Calicut airport and was later re-routed back to Nedumbassery airport. While 6e84 Indigo flight from Muscat was re-routed to Coimbatore, AK 37 Air Asia flight was diverted to Trichy airport. 6e338 Indigo flight from Pune was diverted to Coimbatore airport and 6e6617 Indigo flight from Chennai was re-routed to the Bangalore airport. Alternative arrangments were made by the agencies to transport passengers who landed at other airports to CIAL.
The Nedumbassery airport premises had received heavy rain during the past several days. On Tuesday, an Air India Express veered off the taxiway and slid into the nearby drain while landing at Nedumbassery airport. Lack of visibility due to heavy rain in the early morning was cited as a reason for the mishap. A two-member team from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reached the airport on Wednesday to investigate the accident. The team visited the accident site and conducted a physical inspection of the aircraft stationed at the aircraft maintenance hangar attached to the airport.