For two winter mornings, an Air India Express Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating flight from Delhi found itself in a maze due to heavy fog above Lucknow.
The plane circled Lucknow 28 times on January 2 and 4, lingering over the city for over 171 minutes before returning to Delhi without making a touchdown. The IX217 flight arrived in Lucknow at 6:42 a.m. on January 4.
However, the runway visual range (RVR) was only 125 meters, which is significantly less than the minimum 150 meters recommended by the DGCA for a safe landing.
The pilots maintained the aircraft in a holding pattern, hoping the fog would clear. The aircraft circled the city eleven times in 78 minutes, ending at 8:01 a.m.
The plane turned around and landed in Delhi at 8:55 a.m. after conditions didn't get better. Two Air India Express flights, IX2048 from Bengaluru and IX1026 from Mumbai, arrived one to three hours late, and SalamAir OV705 from Muscat arrived more than ninety minutes late at 5.16 am.
IX2171 encountered almost the same circumstances on January 2. It arrived in Lucknow at 6:18 a.m. and spent the next ninety-three minutes circling the city seventeen times while it waited for a break in the fog, which never materialized.
