As many as 14 incoming flights at the Mumbai Airport were diverted to different airports on Wednesday due to heavy rains. Of these, nine flights were of IndiGo alone which were not given clearance to land in the city due to the inclement weather. The development comes as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for Mumbai and its neighbouring districts, predicting “extremely heavy rainfall” for the city. The flight services have been affected as it has been raining in many parts of the city since afternoon.
Mumbai rains: vehicular movement affected
Air India flight AI-656 left Rajkot at 6.15 pm and was scheduled to land in Mumbai and hour later, but heavy rains forced the aircraft to divert to Ahmedabad.
In the similar manner, IndiGo flight from Bangkok to Mumbai 6E1052 was diverted to Ahmedabad at 8.04 pm due to wind shear- sudden change in speed and direction of the wind.
Vistara Flight UK941 from Delhi to Mumbai diverted to Hyderabad due to bad weather in Mumbai. Expected arrival in Hyderabad at 21:10.
Latest reports suggest that by 8.15 pm, seven flights that had come in to land has carried out a go-around because of weather conditions. Notably, the flight operations were delayed by an average of 30 minutes.
Nonstop rains for last 3 hours
A civic official stated that the IMD upgraded its orange alert for the country’s financial capital to red alert, which is valid till 8.30 am on Thursday.
In the meantime, the IMD has predicted “extremely heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds at isolated places very likely” in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad and Ratnagiri districts.
The weather office has also issued an orange alert for the coastal districts of Palghar and Sindhudurg with “heavy to very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds at isolated places very likely”.
