12 aircraft used unsafe runaway
The failure of officials to carry out a mandatory runway inspection after a plane aborted take-off at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport due to a destroyed engine put at least 12 following flights in harm's way on Tuesday.
It also caused the landing of the flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to put its landing on hold for 20 minutes.
Primary investigations suggest that a Biman Boeing 777-300ER had lost several blades from one of its turbofan engines during take-off. It caused the plane to abort take-off and fragments of the titanium alloy blades got scattered on the lone runway of the airport, said chief of one of the three probe bodies formed to investigate the incident.
“Such objects could cause serious damage to an aircraft and even an accident had those been on the middle of the runway,” said an aviation expert wishing anonymity.
“It is mandatory to conduct a thorough inspection of the runway after each rejected take-off, but unfortunately no such inspection was done apparently.”
A source in Biman Bangladesh Airlines claimed that the person who was to drive the runway inspection vehicle after the aborted take-off was sent to buy iftar instead. The officials apparently totally forgot to inspect the runway, the source said.
The Daily Star could not independently verify the claim of this source.
It is a sheer demonstration of sloppiness from the part of the officials concerned of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab), who were supposed to inspect the runway after the aborted take-off of the Dhaka-Dammam flight. They were supposed to remove those objects from the runway immediately, the expert added.
Those fragments were only noticed and removed after a Special Security Force (SSF) team with officials of the airport carried out an inspection half an hour before the landing of the PM's flight was scheduled on Tuesday evening, officials concerned said.
“With the metal objects lying strewn on both sides of strip, at least 12 international and domestic flights either took off or landed at the airport, but fortunately no accident took place,” Group Captain M Zakir Hasan, director of the airport, told The Daily Star yesterday.
On July 25, 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concord plane, during take-off ran over a titanium strip dislodged from an aircraft that had taken off just before it on a runway of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The metal strip caused a tyre puncture and eventually the crash of the plane that left 113 people dead. Experts blame this incident for the killing off of Concord.
Zakir leads the airport probe committee designated to find out why those fragments of titanium blades were lying on the runway. The body is expected to submit its report on Sunday.
The Caab formed another probe body, led by Capt Mostaque Ahmed, which will independently investigate the incident. It will find the reason for the aborted take-off, people responsible for non-inspection of the runway, and Caab's operational inadequacies in dealing with the situation.
Besides, Biman has also formed a six-member enquiry committee led by Captain Fazal to find out why the new Boeing 777-300ER lost an engine. The plane had the engine overhauled only four months ago, sources claimed.
The committee has been asked to submit its report immediately.
Biman on Wednesday also suspended two of its engineering staff -- Rafiqul Islam and Sohel Akter -- for their failure to immediately report to the authorities concerned that debris from the engine could be on the runway after the aircraft returned to the apron.
Meanwhile, Independent MP Rustam Ali Farazi yesterday demanded that the civil aviation minister give a statement in parliament on the issue.
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