Bangladesh calls in National Security Intelligence to probe PM plane emergency landing

The National Security Intelligence (NSI) has been brought on board the civil aviation ministry committee to investigate the faults on a plane that had Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flying to Hungary.

The intelligence agency's inclusion on the committee came on Monday, a day after Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon's statement that a security agency was checking whether the 'human factor', which caused the technical glitch, had been an act of sabotage.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism formed a four-strong committee to investigate the technical glitch that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Turkmenistan when it was ferrying the prime minister to Budapest on Nov 27.

Now NSI Director Ziaul Ahsan has been included on the committee, the ministry's Public Relations Officer Mahbubur Rahman Tuhin told bdnews24.com.

A former additional director general of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Brigadier General Ahsan joined NSI in April this year.

After his inclusion in the investigation committee, it has been given seven more working days to submit a report on the findings, ministry PRO Tuhin said.

The committees formed by Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) have already filed their findings.

Biman has suspended six officials of its engineering and technical departments for 'negligence in performance of duty' following the report.

Minister Menon on Sunday told Parliament a nut on the engine oil or lubricant line of the plane's left engine came loose and forced the pilot to make the emergency landing. He blamed the maintenance staff for the glitch.

"A security agency is checking whether it was negligence on the part of those on duty or if it was sabotage," he added.

People related to the investigation said the 'oil heat exchanger' or 'oil pressure sensor' next to the nut had undergone 'small repair work' some days earlier.

A Biman investigator told bdnews24.com that those who had worked there had apparently touched or loosened the nut 'intentionally or unintentionally' and 'necessarily or unnecessarily'.

"The engineers did not attend to the loose nut, though they should have done it," he said.