Two Biman officials on remand again

A Dhaka court yesterday placed two suspended Biman officials on a seven-day fresh remand in connection with a case filed for a technical glitch that caused a Biman aircraft carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make an emergency landing in Turkmenistan on November 27 last year.

The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sazzadur Rahman passed the order after Mahbub Alam, inspector of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit, produced the two suspended officials -- engineer Rokonuzzaman and junior technician Siddiqur Rahman -- before it with a prayer for a 10-day remand for each of them.

They were produced before the court on completion of their seven-day remand.

On December 22, the two were sent to jail after they surrendered before another court seeking bail in the case.

Nine employees of Biman Bangladesh Airlines were made accused in the case filed under the Special Powers Act with Airport Police Station on December 21. Wing Commander (retd) MM Asaduzzaman, director of engineering and material management of Biman, filed the case.

All the nine Biman employees were suspended and seven of them were arrested hours after the case was filed.

The same day, the seven were placed on seven-day police remand each when they were produced before the court.

They are now on an eight-day remand in a second phase.

On November 27, a Biman flight carrying the prime minister made an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan on her way to Budapest in Hungary as engine-1 of the aircraft was losing oil pressure.

After the landing, engineers identified that a loose nut was causing the loss of oil pressure.

The Biman authorities formed a technical probe committee the following day to find the reason behind the incident. Based on the findings of the probe committee, Biman first suspended six employees and later three more and filed the case against them.