MUMBAI: Even as the SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur flew into severe turbulence on Sunday, injuring 17 onboard, at least three other flights that were routed to fly over the same region had deviated and opted for longer routings to avoid the violent squall line of ‘Kalbaisakhi’ thunderstorm cells, reports Manju V.
The SpiceJet accident was the third such pre-monsoon turbulence associated with Kalbaisakhi in the past few years that resulted in serious injuries to flyers. Others that deviated included IndiGo flights from Ahmedabad and Chandigarh — both bound for Kolkata — and a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Hanoi, Vietnam. Satellite images show a line of thunderstorm cells tracing a C-shaped pattern from Gaya down to Ranchi and Jamshedpur.
A pre-monsoon weather phenomenon, Kalbaisakhi brings torrential rain or severe thunderstorm with dark clouds and gale-speed winds.
