BANGALORE: Travel plans of passengers went haywire as they were stranded at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) on Friday for five hours.
Operations were affected between 5.30 am and 11.30 am due to malfunctioning of the primary radar equipment.
During this time, four flights were diverted to Chennai and several other flights (departing and arriving) were delayed by approximately 30 to 40 minutes. The operations resumed after 11.30 am.
Sources said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which is in charge of air traffic control had sought time to rectify the snag and had chosen the wee hours of the day to do it as the flight density is low. However, they could not set it right on time and flights had to be diverted and a few delays occurred as well.
“They had conveyed that things would be set right by 5.30 am and then extended it by an hour. Finally, they were able to set it right only by 11.30 am,” said sources.
In all, 15 delays were reported.
The flights which were diverted were 9W411 from Mumbai, 9W801 from Delhi, IT 064 from Colombo and 9W532 from Chennai.