Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Snow in the evening caused the closure of the international airport in Urgench. According to preliminary data, the air harbor will be closed until 5 am on 19 January.

On 18 January, due to bad weather conditions (snowfall), an Uzbekistan Airways flight HY-280 on the Istanbul-Urgench route made an emergency landing at an alternate airfield in Tashkent. The aircraft landed at the capital’s airport at 19:29 with 98 passengers on board. The airline decided to accommodate all passengers in the hotel until the morning of 19 January. According to preliminary data, the plane will fly from Tashkent to Urgench at 07:15 on flight HY-051.

Urgench Airport is currently closed. Due to increased snowfall, the runway friction coefficient is 0.3, which does not allow aircraft to take off and land. According to weather forecasts, it will snow all night. In this regard, two more flights are expected to be delayed. The plane of Ural Airlines on the Kazan-Urgench route was supposed to land at the destination airport at 21:45, but due to the weather conditions of the host country, it has not yet departed from Kazan. The situation is similar with the Moscow-Urgench flight of the Red Wings airline. The plane also has not yet taken off from the Domodedovo airport.

According to preliminary data, both flights will be postponed until the morning of 19 January. The exact departure time of the airline will be announced later.