An official said flights cannot operate from Kabul airport now as the airspace has been closed. That implies no aircraft can also land there.
Notice to the airmen
A ‘NOTAM’ or notice to airmen has been put out to say Kabul airspace has been closed. Sources said an Air India aircraft tasked with flying to Afghanistan to take away the people would no longer be able to go there either.
On Monday, the airline had a scheduled flight to Kabul at 8:30 am from Delhi; however, it was re-scheduled to 12:50 pm and subsequently cancelled, following the closure of airspace in Kabul after the notice to the airmen.
Flights are enrouted!
Since the Afghan airspace has been closed, Air India flights arriving from the US are likely to be re-routed, sources said.
Flights AI-174 (San Francisco-New Delhi) and AI-126 (Chicago-New Delhi) will have to re-routed to a Gulf nation to refuel, they said.
Further adding to the data, it mentioned that Air India is also working on new routes for flights that will depart later from India to the US.
News agency Reuters reported that Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority asked all transit aircraft to reroute, adding that any transit through Kabul airspace would be uncontrolled. Kabul’s flight information region covers all of Afghanistan.
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Flights have changed course!
FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service, reported that an Air India flight from Chicago, which had to arrive in Delhi, instantly changed course and fled Afghanistan’s airspace, and that a Terra Avia flight from Baku to Delhi was also changing route.
Chaos evolved at Kabul airport after thousands of people rushed in to take any available flight out of the country, which created a desperate situation.
Reports said US troops fired in the air to control the crowd, whereas Hundreds of men were seen jerking and struggling to climb onto a parked aircraft.
