Biman suspends 3 more engineers over PM's plane's emergency landing

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended three more engineers for their negligence in duty that caused a VVIP flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make emergency landing in Turkmenistan.

The VVIP flight BG1011 carrying the premier made emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan on November 27 due to technical glitch. The flight was going to Hungarian capital of Budapest.

The suspended officials are Chief Engineer (Production) Debesh Chowdhury, Chief Engineer (Inspection and Quality Assurance) S A Siddique and Principal Engineer (MCC) Billal Hossain.

"The management of the national flag carrier took the decision as per the final report submitted by the investigation team," Biman General Manager (Public Relations) Shakil Meraj told BSS yesterday. 

Earlier on November 28, Biman formed the four-member probe committee, led by its Chief of Technical Captain Fazal Mahmud Chowdhury, to investigate the incident. 

Officials said the probe body found their negligence in inspecting the VVIP flight which made emergency landing at Ashgabat due to low lubricant oil pressure.

The committee submitted the final report to the Biman chief executive officer on December 12.

Apart from Biman, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) formed two separate committees to probe the incident. 

Earlier, Biman management suspended its six engineers based on the preliminary investigation report. They were Engineer Officer S M Rokonuzzaman, Engineer Officer Samiul Haque, Engineer Officer Lutfor Rahman, Engineer Officer Milon Chandra Biswas, Engineer Officer Zakir Hossain and Technician Siddiqur Rahman.

The special VVIP flight (BG1011) "Ranga Pravat" carrying the premier and 99 passengers including her entourage, four cockpit crew, 20 cabin crew and four aircraft engineers left Dhaka for the Hungarian capital at 9.14 am on November 27.
But due to technical fault it landed at Ashgabat International Airport in the Turkmenistan capital, at 2.15 pm Bangladesh time by changing its route. After arrival at Ashgabat, the on-duty engineers fixed the fault.

Later, the Biman's special VVIP flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina started for Budapest at 6.37 pm after over four hours of unscheduled stopover at Ashgabat. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to Budapest on a four-day bilateral visit in conjunction with Budapest Water Summit 2016 at the invitation of Hungarian President Dr Janos Ader.

Source: BSS