Delhi airport roof collapses, one dead, flights cancelled

By Aftab Ahmed

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A roof collapsed in heavy rain and strong winds at the main airport in India’s capital New Delhi on Friday, killing one person and leading to the cancellation of flights from a domestic terminal, authorities said.

Part of the canopy of the departure area of ​​Delhi airport’s Terminal 1 collapsed early in the morning and flight operations were disrupted till 2 p.m. (0830 GMT), the minister told reporters Indian Aviation.

The entire terminal, one of three at the country’s busiest airport, has been evacuated and an investigation has been ordered into the collapse, Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said.

At least 10 flights have been cancelled and 40 have been delayed, according to data from flight tracking platform Flightradar24.

Eight injured people have been taken to hospital and the rescue operation has been completed, Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg said.

Footage from Indian television channels showed a taxi crushed under a destroyed metal pillar at the entrance to the terminal, which is mainly used by low-cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet for domestic flights.

Indigo is operated by Interglobe Aviation.

The incident occurred at 5 a.m. (11:30 p.m. GMT Thursday), a typically busy time for domestic flights carrying people across the country, an airport statement published on X said.

The airport area received about 148.5 millimetres of rain in three hours in the early morning, more than the average for the entire month of June, according to the India Meteorological Office.

Many other parts of Delhi were also flooded and cars were stuck in thigh-deep water. Metro services were disrupted and traffic jams were reported in several parts of the city.

Several Delhi residents also complained of power cuts.

In India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, at least 20 people have died in various incidents related to rain and floods in the past 48 hours, including seven from lightning, officials said.

GMR Airports Infrastructure, which operates Delhi International Airport, is also its largest shareholder with a 64% stake. Its shares fell as much as 2.1% in early trade.

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Aditi Shah; additional reporting by Nandan Mandayam and Rajendra Jadhav; writing by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Christian Schmollinger and Raju Gopalakrishnan)