Nearly 8,000 passengers were stranded due to airport closure
when thick fog blanketed this capital of southwest China's Sichuan
Province on Sunday morning.
The heavy fog cut visibility at the Chengdu's Shuangliu
International Airport to less than 20 meters, delaying flights and
requiring others to be rerouted.
China Civil Aviation Administration's regulations say that an
airport's standard visibility for taking off and landing is 550
meters and 800 meters respectively.
Lu Junming, an official in charge of passenger service at the
airport, said the fog forced the airport to close for two and half
hours from 7:10 to 9:40?AM Sunday.
A total of 97 flights were delayed while six others were
cancelled, affecting thousands of passengers, Liu said.
The airport offered drinking water to stranded passengers
waiting for departures.
The fog got thicker on Saturday night due to high humidity and a
temperature drop, according to the city's observatory.
The visibility in the downtown area is less than 200 meters. The
observatory predicted that the fog would hit the city again on
Monday morning.
The heavy fog also caused the closure of all major highways
linking Chengdu with other cities in the province.
No serious traffic jams were reported during the morning rush
hour, and many people turned to public transport instead of driving
their own cars for safety reasons.
(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2007)