Bhubaneswar, Dec. 8: Three early morning flights to the city were diverted to Calcutta today due to dense fog. The GoAir, IndiGo and Air India flights had originated from New Delhi.

Today's diversion was the first this winter owing to fog.

Sources at the local meteorological office said the visibility between 6am and 8am was around 50 metres making it impossible for flights to either land or take off.

While the two diverted flights flew into Bhubaneswar airport at 10am, the Air India flight from Delhi to Port Blair via Bhubaneswar did not return and instead, went directly to Port Blair.

'An aircraft usually needs a 1,200m visibility range. But today, as the early morning visibility was very low, the flights were diverted. Operations resumed later,' airport director Sharad Kumar told The Telegraph.

The runway at Biju Patnaik Airport is equipped with a Category-I (CAT-I) landing facility. Aircraft equipped with a CAT-I landing device can land in adverse weather conditions here. But generally, the visibility range never goes down so low. Operations resumed when the weather situation improved around 10am.

'Yesterday, the sky was clear and the moisture generated last afternoon was not enough to take shape of clouds and move to the upper layers of the atmosphere. Again, as moisture was low and the wind speed was just around 8-9kmph, the fog was thick over the city,' Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre director Sarat Chandra Sahoo said, adding that increasing pollution levels due to rising vehicular emissions in and around Bhubaneswar was also responsible for dense fog.

'High intensity of particulate matter in the local atmosphere, especially in the lower strata of the atmosphere, influence the formation of fog,' he said.

On the fog conditions, the weather expert said the morning visibility problem might continue till December 12.

Today, the morning activities across the city were affected with many elderly morning walkers staying put in their houses with the foggy conditions prevailing. 'I could not go for the morning walk as the fog was too dense,'' said Nrupakishore Patnaik, an elderly resident of Pokhariput.

All major parks maintained by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the municipal corporation also experienced low turnouts this morning. On typical days, a large number of people turn up at these places in the morning for walks, yoga or simply to enjoy nature.

Schools and colleges also noticed a fall in attendance.

'We are asking the little ones to put on their woollens because otherwise, they might catch a cold,' said Jasaswini Mohapatra, principal of Maria Montessori School of Little Angels, Ganganagar.

Stranded passengers

The 15 passengers who could not go to the Andamans today because their Air India flight was first diverted to Calcutta and then proceeded to Port Blair directly from there, alleged that the airline offered them little help and failed to offer a proper alternative.

While the GoAir and Indigo flights came to Bhubaneswar after the fog lifted, the Air India flight didn't. The 15 passengers were later offered the alternative to go to Calcutta via Mumbai, stay overnight, and proceed to Port Blair the next morning. Air India officials said most flights were full because eof peak season.

Ankita Musadi, a dental surgeon, who was on her honeymoon to the Andamans, was unhappy with the way Air India handled the situation.

'All the diverted aircraft returned but except ours. We had a booking of four nights and three days and they are offering us a diverted route via Mumbai when Calcutta is so near from here. Second, they are saying that there 'may be' a link to Port Blair and I suspect that they are not sure on this,' Ankita told The Telegraph.

Iskcon devotee William Sears and city residents Amrita Verma and Priyansha Nanda were others, who, despite having their boarding passes ready, could not board the direct flight to Port Blair today.

'The flight in which the Air India officials are planning to take us to Port Blair has only seven seats but our group has 15 members,' said Ankita.

A senior Air India official said that the flight went directly to Port Blair from Calcutta due to technical reasons.

Air India station manager Tapas Ray said: 'We have planned the reschedule for the passengers in a manner so that they will not face any difficulty. It is a standard practice for all airlines to manage the stranded passengers in this manner if the flight is either diverted or aborted en-route. They will reach their destination tomorrow.'