PM flight glitch: Court gives investigators more time to submit report

A Dhaka court has extended the deadline to submit the probe report over technical glitch in Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane that was carrying the prime minister.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 Feb 2017, 08:05 AM
Updated : 19 Feb 2017, 08:27 AM

Police's counterterrorism unit is probing the incident.

On Sunday, investigating officer Inspector Mahbubul Alam was scheduled to file the findings in a metropolitan magistrate court, but petitioned for more time.

The court accepted his plea and fixed Mar 29 for submitting the report.

On Nov 27 last year, the Boeing-777 aircraft carrying Sheikh Hasina to Hungary made an emergency landing at Turkmenistan's Ashgabat airport after a drop in fuel pressure was detected in one of the engines.

Hasina waited at the airport’s VIP lounge while the plane was being inspected for faults. The plane ‘Ranga Prabhat’, which had 99 on board, was in the airport for four hours before it was able to take off to reach Budapest.

Three separate inquiries were started over the incident.

The probe by Biman found that ‘human error’ caused the glitch following which nine of its officials were suspended.

The national flag carrier later started a case against them.

They are, Biman’s Chief Engineer (Production) Debesh Chowdhury, Acting Chief Engineer (Inspection and Quality Control) SA Siddique, Acting Chief Engineer (Maintenance and System Control) Billal Hossain, and engineering officials SM Rokonuzzaman, Samiul Haque, Lutfer Rahman, Milon Chandra Biswas and Zakir Hossain and Technician Siddiqur Rahman.

All of them had been arrested and interrogated in custody by the counterterrorism unit.