Flight operations at Amritsar disrupted due to faulty equipment

Flight operations at Amritsar airport were disrupted on Wednesday and Thursday due to near zero visibility and a fault in critical meteorological equipment.

Amritsar airport is equipped to handle operations in extremely low visibility conditions. These are known as CAT-IIIB operations and allow an aircraft to land in visibility over 50 metres.  However it requires proper functioning of the equipment that gives information of visibility over the entire runway..

A fault in one of the three instruments measuring the runway visual range and near zero visibility resulted in 24 flight cancellations and diversion of nine flights to Delhi. Operations resumed on Thursday afternoon with improvement in visibility.

A senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation official said a team from meteorological department is visiting Amritsar and the faulty equipment is likely to be rectified by Friday evening.