Fog disrupts flight operation, ferry services

Flight operations at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka were halted for 10 hours since early Sunday due to dense fog.

All the domestic flights were delayed and three international flight were diverted due to the foggy weather, sources said.

"The Kuala Lumpur–Dhaka and Muscat-Chittagong flights of Biman were diverted to Kolkata due to thick fog while another international flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was diverted to Chittagong,” Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh Spokesperson AKM Rezaul Karim told The Daily Star.

The three flights were scheduled to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Hazrat Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong in the morning.

Besides, around 14 domestic flights were delayed from one to three hour as the visibility of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport dropped," added Rezaul Karim.

Poor runway visibility forced the airport authorities to stop both inbound and outbound flight operations in between 1:00 am to 11:00 am, Sunday, he said.

Apart from the dense fog, flight operations at HSIA airport have been kept suspended for over three and half hours from 2:10 am to 5:50 am since January 1 due to runway's renovation work. And the suspension will continue till March 31, said a CAAB official.

All airlines have also been informed the matter and they have rescheduled their flights, he further said.

Meanwhile, ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia and Shimulia-Kathalbari routes were restored over four hours of its suspension due to dense fog.

"To avoid any untoward incident, the ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia route were kept suspended from 4:30 am due to poor visibility caused by heavy fog," UNB quoted said Nasir Mohammad Chowdhury, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Aricha, as saying.

Later, the ferry service resumed around 10:30am as the fog disappeared, Nasir added

Six ferries were aground in the middle of the river while seven others lay anchored at Paturia and three at Daulatdia ghats, Nasir Mohammad said.

More than 500 vehicles got stranded at both ghats to cross the river due to the suspension of ferry services, he added.

Our Munshiganj correspondent reports, ferry services on the Shimulia-Kathalbari route came to a complete halt from 6:00am due to blurred visibility caused by thick fog, our Munshiganj correspondent reports quoting Shah Newaz Khaled, assistant general manager of BIWTC.

The ferry services on the route resumed after four hours, the official said.