Staff Reporter :
The administration of Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended its six employees relating to the emergency landing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s VVIP aircraft.
“We have suspended them as per the primary report of an investigation team. The Biman employees were involved in the inspection of Prime Minister’s VVIP aircraft,” Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said it at a press conference held in the Secretariat in Dhaka on Wednesday.
On November 23, a VVIP flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to make an emergency landing at Ashgabad International Airport, the capital of Turkmenistan on route to Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
The aircraft, a Boeing-777-300ER, made the emergency landing due to fuel shortage, according to Biman’s probe report. Biman formed a four-member investigation committee led by Chief of Technical Captain Fazal Mahmud Chowdhury to investigate the incident.
Biman sources said that the committee found them guilty. “Investigation initially found that a screw was misplaced, leading to sipping of oil from the left engine and finally low oil pressure. The investigators are now trying to confirm whether the technical glitch was intentional or an oversight,’ said Biman’s spokesperson Shakil Meraj.
He said, a group including Biman officials, who worked before the flight had taken off was vetted by the Special Branch. The aircraft which made the emergency landing into four hours after flying with the prime minister and her 99 entourage at Ashgabad in Turkmenistan around 2:15pm on Sunday, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport via Dubai and Sylhet with passengers on Tuesday morning.
After landing, separate probe bodies inspected the aircraft.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines earlier formed a four-member committee to investigate the emergency landing.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry formed another probe committee led by Additional Secretary Swapan Kumar Sarkar (Administration and Tourism) to investigate the incident.
