Glitch in PM's Plane: Biman suspends six employees

Biman yesterday suspended six officials of its engineering section after a probe discovered that their negligence in duty caused a Biman flight carrying the prime minister to make an emergency landing in Turkmenistan on Sunday.

The VVIP flight to Budapest with Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina made the emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan after a loose nut caused an oil leak and subsequent oil pressure loss in engine-1 of the Boeing 777-300ER, the Biman probe found.

Following procedure, the plane was handed over to the security personnel 24 hours prior to its flight and those who were supposed to have inspected the plane have been identified, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon said at a press briefing yesterday.

In the briefing, the minister said the probe body identified five to seven officials of engineering and technical directorates of Biman for the incident. He said stern action would be taken against those responsible after a thorough investigation.

The six were suspended around an hour after the minister's briefing.

They are: engineering officials SM Rokonuzaman, Samiul Haque, Lutfor Rahman, Milon Chandra Biswas, and Zakir Hossain, and technician Siddiqur Rahman.

The minister in the briefing said according to the Biman probe, the aircraft was forced to make the emergency landing due to “human failure factor”.

After having the problem fixed, the aircraft, named “Ranga Pravhat”, left Ashgabat Airport for Budapest.

Asked whether there was any sabotage attempt, the minister said it would be known only after the thorough investigation.

The minister said cockpit crew members detected the technical glitch when the aircraft was over Lahore in Pakistan and as per the standard operation procedure, the pilots made the emergency landing.

Three enquiry committees were formed following the incident, one by the civil aviation ministry, one by Biman and the other by Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh.

The four-member Biman committee, led by Captain Fazal Mahmud, yesterday submitted its report to the civil aviation minister.

On November 27, the prime minister left for Budapest at the invitation of Hungarian President Janos Ader to attend the Budapest Water Summit 2016.

On her four-day visit, she was leading a 90-member delegation which includes three cabinet ministers -- LGRD, Water Resources and Foreign Affairs -- 12 senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office, nine officials from the foreign ministry, four high officials from different ministries, eight security personnel, 15 member media team, and 39 businessmen.