Incessant rains disrupt air communication in Barak Valley

Flight service to and from Silchar was affected heavily on Saturday, due to adverse weather conditions prevailing in the region since Saturday morning. Three Silchar bound flights from Kolkata and Guwahati went back to the origin cities after their failed landing attempt at Silchar airport on Saturday, due to poor visibility.

The flights which went back include Air India’s AI 753 doing Kolkata Silchar, Spicejet’s SG 8152 doing Guwahati Silchar. Spicejet’s another flight with number SG 3218 was first rescheduled to 5:40 PM and later cancelled due to non-improvement of the weather condition at Silchar Airport.

Airport sources informed that Air India’s AI 753 attempted to land at Silchar airport twice but could not due to poor visibility. The aircraft which took off on time from Kolkata airport was scheduled to arrive at Silchar on 7am, but due to poor visibility was forced to abandon the landing and flew back to Kolkata. “The visibility might have been below the minimum required level and also it was raining heavily in the morning, so may be due to it they decided to fly back” an Airport official said on being contacted.

The same flight was rescheduled at 1:20 pm, but that time too it could not land and flew back. Later the flight was cancelled for the day. Similar suffering were also of Spicejet passengers as their flight (SG 8152) was made to hover over Silchar for 30 minutes and then forced to go back to Guwahati.

It can be mentioned here that, Barak Valley is receiving incessant rainfall from Saturday morning which has caused flash flood in many parts of the Silchar town. According to the Indian Meterological Department, ‘heavy rainfall to very heavy rainfall’ is very likely to occur at Assam and Meghalaya on 26th and 27th October. Thereafter the weather will improve slowly.