242 stranded Bangladeshis en route from USA

A special flight carrying 242 Bangladesh citizens stranded in the USA amid the coronavirus pandemic departed for Bangladesh from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) on May 15.

The chartered A 350-900 airbus of Qatar Airways took off at 11:04pm (Washington local time) from Dulles International Airport.

The flight is scheduled to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 4:00am (Bangladesh local time) on May 17, Bangladesh Embassy in the USA and officials at HSIA, said.

The aircraft is scheduled to land at Doha International Airport at 7pm (Doha time) on May 16.

After one-hour technical stopover at Doha airport, the plane will leave Doha at 8pm (Doha time).

Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA Mohammad Ziauddin saw off the passengers and wished their safe flight, the embassy said in a release.

The travelling passengers include mostly Bangladeshi students studying in different colleges and universities in the US, Bangladeshi citizens who came to America on tourist and business visa and some government and non-government officials.

The passengers also include 49 school and college students who came to the US under Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) program.

Since March 16, Bangladesh imposed ban on schedule passenger flight operation will all countries except for China to contain spread of Covid-19.

In the last week, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh extended the ban till May 30.

The Bangladesh government has so far operated repatriation flights in different countries including India, Malaysia, Australia and Bangkok.