Biman passengers stranded for hours

Hundreds of air passengers have been held up for long hours in Bangladesh and three other countries, as two aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines were grounded due to technical glitches in the last two days.
Lack of hotel accommodation from the airline added to the sufferings of the passengers at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka and the other airports in Kolkata, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Dhaka-bound Boeing 77 missed the flight from Kolkata on Monday, and Hong Kong-bound DC-10 missed the flight from Dhaka yesterday, leaving passengers stranded for a day in Kolkata and 10 hours in Dhaka.
“We had some of the Dhaka-bound passengers in Kolkata board an aircraft of Indian Jet Airways as they were stranded for several hours,” said Captain Ishrat Ahmed, director of flight operations of Biman.
“The Hong Kong-bound passengers were scheduled to fly at 11:00 in the morning, but they had to fly at 11:00 at night due to failure in flight schedule,” Ahmed told The Daily Star by phone.
He said the Dhaka-bound passengers at Dammam airport in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait airport were also stranded for a few hours on Monday, but they were later taken by other airlines.
He added, “Maintenance work is going on, and I hope the two aircraft will join the fleet in a day or two.”
In an email reply to The Daily Star,       Biman Managing Director Kevin Steele       said, “Kolkata flight was delayed for a few hours, but we don't have any stranded passengers....”
He added, “The latest flight schedule disruption was caused by two of our seven                 aircraft having technical problems at the same time.”
The DC10 had a fuel leak, Steele said, adding that both the aircraft would be back in operation by 10:00am today.
“We have reached an agreement with Kabo [a Nigerian airline] on their B747, on using the aircraft if any of our own aircraft have a problem in future.”