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Cause of F28 crash not found yet
Authorities wait for insurance company's visit before starting recovery work
Staff Correspondent
The probe committees are yet to find the cause of Friday's plane crash at Sylhet airport.
The pilots however believe poor condition of the runway might have caused the accident in which all 83 passengers and crew miraculously escaped.
The F28 aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines remains at the crash site under armed police guard. Civil aviation officials said the authorities would resume work to recover it after the visit of insurance company officials.
"We are waiting for the insurance company officials' visit, which may take few more days," said an official of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab).
The probe committee of civil aviation ministry headed by Caab Chairman Zahed Quddus has started probing into the crash while Biman's internal probe committee headed by its chief of flight safety is yet to launch investigation.
The three-member Caab inquiry team, which went to Sylhet last night, talked to the officials and staff of the control tower at Sylhet airport and collected flight records and documents related to the landing system.
Meanwhile, Biman pilots joined duty yesterday afternoon several hours after they had refused to fly domestic and regional flights in protest against a reported comment by state minister for civil aviation on Friday's plane crash.
Sources said they called off the work stoppage following the minister's affirmation that he did not put blame on pilots for the crash while talking to electronic media.
All the domestic flights scheduled in the morning were shifted to afternoon causing an average delay of eight hours in the wake of the wildcat strike called by Bangladesh Airline Pilots' Association (Bapa).
In a telephonic conversation with the media at Biman office in the afternoon State Minister Civil Aviation and Tourism Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, who was in Chittagong, retracted his comment and urged the pilots to resume works.
Nasiruddin said he did not hold the pilots responsible for the crash, which injured 30 including captain and a first officer and a former advisor to the caretaker government.
"The reason of the crash will only be available after the probe committee report," he said.
Earlier, the pilots at a press briefing in Dhaka said the condition of runway of Sylhet airport is poor. The runway developed depression alongside the main wheel track and it gets waterlogged even after a little rain.
The runway went under waist-deep water during recent floods that caused serious damage but it was not repaired, the pilots said.
A Caab official however denied the allegation that faulty condition of runway had caused the plane crash. He said flight operation has been going on at the Osmani International Airport without any trouble.
Seriously injured Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, executive director of Brac, and Captain Shahana Begum were still at the Combined Military Hospital while first officer Abu Safa was released yesterday afternoon.
Doctors said Captain Shahana was improving fast but still under observation.
Muyeed Chowdhury, who sustained injury in leg, hand, head, had an operation in left hand yesterday. Doctors said blood circulation and pressure was good. But due to his old age, he was in under close observation.
TECHNICAL FAULTS IN 2 OTHER AIRCRAFT
Two international flights of Biman were delayed yesterday after pilots detected technical faults in the aircraft after take-off from Zia International Airport (ZIA).
Biman's Jeddah-bound flight was delayed by nine hours as pilots were forced to land the DC10 aircraft after its take-off from ZIA.
Sources said the pilots detected technical faults after the flight took off at 3:45am. But they could not land the aircraft as it required dumping of fuel to lose its weight. DC10 planes have to dump fuel in case of landing soon after take-off.
As the fuel dumping gear was not working, the pilots flied around Dhaka sky for four hours to exhaust most of the fuel and landed at 7:00am. After checking by ground engineers, the plane finally took off at 1:00pm.
The BG 091 flight to Kolkata took off from ZIA at 10:39am and the pilots brought it back to the airport after they heard unusual sound in the aircraft. After handling by engineers, the Airbus finally took off at 12:33pm. )
Would have concern about the safety aspect of this airline considering the fact that fuel could not be dumped in a seperate incident 