Turkish flag carrier fined Tk 3 lakh
A mobile court at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport fined Turkish Airlines Tk 3 lakh for carrying three passengers without Covid-19 negative certificates.
The three returned to Bangladesh from the US via a stopover in Turkey on Wednesday, Ahmed Jamil, a magistrate of the mobile court at HSIA, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The passengers, members of the same family, are Bangladeshis. They are well-educated and one of them even works at the health department in the US, Jamil added.
They were sent to institutional quarantine, he said.
"It's unfortunate that those who didn't bring Covid-19 negative certificates are conscious and well-educated people. They are not unaware of what's going on in the US regarding the spread of Covid-19. It's surprising that they didn't bring Covid-19 negative certificates while coming to Bangladesh from that country," said the magistrate.
Before leaving the US, the three passengers went to a doctor who gave them a certificate saying they do not have any symptoms of Covid-19. But none of them underwent the PCR test mandatory to come to Bangladesh, Jamil said.
Turkish Airlines knew that if they bring any passenger from Istanbul to Dhaka without a negative PCR test report, they would have to pay a fine after the flight reached Dhaka.
They even offloaded 10 passengers who wanted to go to Dhaka from Istanbul on Wednesday because they did not have Covid-19 negative certificates.
But the three passengers from the US were able to come to Dhaka due to the error of those responsible for conducting flight check-in at Istanbul, Jamil said.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in a circular on December 4, 2020, announced that anyone wants to come to Bangladesh must need Covid-19 negative certificate within 72 hours of their scheduled flight from December 5 onwards.
Caab came up with the strict measure to contain the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.
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