Narrative:

This divert was due to vobl's total ATC saturation. (It was later reported to me by the vobl mechanic that they actually closed the airport for 2 bird strikes. ATC did not relay that information.) the [urgent situation] declared was due to lack of response from the controllers. It got to the point where they stopped answering calls from not just us; but other aircraft as well. My fuel planning as programmed in the FMC was conservative to be sure; but for good reason. India is experiencing growing pains with rapid air traffic growth. The weather can be somewhat unpredictable with fog.as we held in the second pattern; you could feel the tension rising with all inbound traffic. Multiple aircraft were expressing concern. My attention shifted to the possibility of lots of airplanes all wanting to head to hyderabad. We continued to hold and tried to work ourselves in; but my confidence level was near zero. We were finally told that our expected touchdown time was XB39. It was XA56 with a hold limit of XA57. So; we requested clearance to hyderabad several times and were either ignored or told to standby. Radio congestion was awful. It is unfortunate that in some corners of the world the only way to get the point across is to [advise ATC]. I felt this to be a prudent course of action given the circumstances.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Large turbojet flight crew reported communication difficulties with ATC while attempting to land at an international airport. Flight diverted to another airport and landed normally.

Narrative: This divert was due to VOBL's total ATC saturation. (It was later reported to me by the VOBL mechanic that they actually closed the airport for 2 bird strikes. ATC did not relay that information.) The [urgent situation] declared was due to lack of response from the controllers. It got to the point where they stopped answering calls from not just us; but other aircraft as well. My fuel planning as programmed in the FMC was conservative to be sure; but for good reason. India is experiencing growing pains with rapid air traffic growth. The weather can be somewhat unpredictable with fog.As we held in the second pattern; you could feel the tension rising with all inbound traffic. Multiple aircraft were expressing concern. My attention shifted to the possibility of lots of airplanes all wanting to head to Hyderabad. We continued to hold and tried to work ourselves in; but my confidence level was near zero. We were finally told that our expected touchdown time was XB39. It was XA56 with a hold limit of XA57. So; we requested clearance to Hyderabad several times and were either ignored or told to standby. Radio congestion was awful. It is unfortunate that in some corners of the world the only way to get the point across is to [advise ATC]. I felt this to be a prudent course of action given the circumstances.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.