Watch: Flights struggle to land in Chennai as Cyclone Fengal brings strong winds, video surfaces | Chennai News – Times of India

CHENNAI: After Cyclone Fengal made landfall late Saturday night, severe weather conditions at Chennai International Airport the following day resulted in challenging situations. Aircraft encountered difficulties landing due to powerful crosswinds and limited visibility.

A particular aircraft had to cancel its landing attempt during its final approach, highlighting the difficult conditions pilots encountered in the harsh weather. In another instance, passengers experienced anxious moments as their aircraft contended with strong crosswinds before successfully landing on the runway.
Cyclone Fengal forced Chennai International Airport to shut down for more than 16 hours since noon on Saturday. Flight operations were withdrawn citing crosswinds. There was no waterlogging on runways and taxiways, and decision to resume operations will be taken after 4am on Sunday, officials said.
Airports Authority of India initially suspended operations until 7pm, citing heavy winds beyond the speed of 35 knots. Later, they extended the closure until 4am on Sunday. At least 229 flights were cancelled.
“The crosswinds prevailed from 300m to 1km from the ground, and airlines raised concerns about operating flights at such high crosswinds. The wind speed was recorded at 35 knots. Since wind speeds beyond 25 knots are risky for flights to operate, the operations were suspended,” said an AAI official. The announcement was preceded by several delays, diversions and cancellations of domestic and international flights. Passengers were stranded in the airport lounge for several hours.
In the afternoon, Indigo Airlines cancelled all its flights to and from Chennai, and requested passengers to apply for a refund.
On Saturday morning, two ATR flights — one to Trichy and Madurai and back to Chennai, and another Air India Express flight to Singapore, scheduled to depart at 2.50am — were delayed until 9am. Flights from Dubai (Emirates), Abu Dhabi (Etihad) and Bengaluru that were to land between 8am and 9am were made to go around before being diverted to Bengaluru due to inclement weather. Two Air India flights from Andaman and Delhi were also diverted to Bengaluru as the weather conditions were not conducive for landing.
After 9am flights to Trichy, Thoothukudi, Madurai, Rajamundry and Jaffna were cancelled. Sri Lankan Airlines cancelled flights to and from Colombo. Chennai airport authorities said 55 arrival flights were cancelled and 19 were diverted to other airports.
The complete disruption of services left the passengers in a lurch and according to ballpark estimates from official sources, over 10,000 people could have been affected due to cancellations and diversions. While the services were hit, nearly 1,000 passengers continued to stay back inside the airport premises to take the first available flight from here to their respective destinations.
As many as 20 flights were cancelled in Hyderabad as well which were services to and from Chennai and Tirupati.