Raipur airport closed after lightning damages ATC

A major technical crisis arose at Swami Vivekananda Airport in the capital Raipur on Wednesday. The system failed due to sudden lightning on the technical equipment giving signals of Air Traffic Control (ATC). Due to technical glitches, many flights coming to Raipur had to be diverted, causing great inconvenience to the passengers. The flight from Delhi to Raipur was sent to Bhopal.

Flight operations at Swami Vivekananda Airport were disrupted on Wednesday evening due to lightning in Chhattisgarh. The equipment of the airport got damaged due to lightning and the flights had to be diverted.

Flights had to be diverted

Two planes coming from Kolkata and Hyderabad were sent to Bhubaneswar, the flight coming from Delhi was sent to Bhopal and the planes coming from Mumbai and Pune were sent to Nagpur.

Navigation equipment damaged due to lightning

Airport Director KK Lahare said that the navigation equipment was damaged due to lightning and the technical team is engaged in repairing it. Therefore, the operation of aircraft is closed.

Meteorologist Dr. Gayatri Vani said that a warning of lightning was given in the evening in the airport and surrounding areas.

Which flights were diverted
The flight coming from Hyderabad to Raipur was sent to Bhubaneswar.
The flight from Kolkata to Raipur was also diverted to Bhubaneswar.
The flight from Delhi to Raipur was sent to Bhopal.
The flight coming from Mumbai to Raipur was diverted to Nagpur. At the same time, the flight from Pune to Raipur hovered in the air for some time.
Passengers had to wait
Due to this sudden technical failure, passengers had to wait for hours at Raipur airport. Many passengers had to land in other cities, from where the process of sending them to their destination started through alternative arrangements.

Repair work continues
The airport management said that the work of repairing the technical equipment of ATC is going on.