Thick fog forces air travellers to take the bus

Transport: Hours added to journey after diversion

Passengers from Stornoway arrived at Inverness Airport nearly five hours late yesterday after their plane was diverted due to thick fog.

A total of 33 people on board the morning’s Stornoway to Inverness flight were redirected to Aberdeen Airport because it was deemed unsafe to land on the runway at Dalcross. When they finally arrived in Aberdeen, the passengers were put on a coach and driven to the Highland capital.

Instead of arriving at 9.20am as originally scheduled, passengers reached the Highlands’ flagship airport at 2.10pm.

Thick, freezing fog conditions disrupted flights in and out of the Highlands’ main airport throughout the day, resulting in anumber of delays.

The 9.20am flights from Sumburgh and Kirkwall were able to land, although they touched down nearly two hours later than planned. The delays continued until about 3pm, by which time the fog had fully lifted and all flights were back on schedule.

A spokesman for Loganair, which is responsible for passenger arrange--

“There has been some disruption at Inverness”

ments, said: “Flight BE6954 carrying 33 pas- and three crew from Stornoway was diverted to Aberdeen due to low-lying freezing fog conditions at Inverness Airport.

“A coach was arranged to transport passengers on to Inverness as adverse weather conditions continued to disrupt services in and out of the airport for most of the morning.

“I have not spoken to any of the passengers on the flight but at the end of the day you can’t take a chance in that kind of fog and safety must come first.

“Services to and from the airport resumed once the fog had cleared.”

A spokesman for Highlands & Islands Airports said: “There has been some disruption at Inverness Airport as a result of fog.

“This resulted in delays on a number of flights.”

ALL CLEAR: After causing problems at Inverness Airport earlier in the day, fog cleared later to allow normal operations