Crack on windshield: Biman flight forced to return to Dubai

A flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines yesterday was forced to return to Dubai after a cockpit windshield cracked.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft departed Dubai for Dhaka at 6:05am local time yesterday.

But the flight BG-0348 with 244 passengers on board had to turn back while it was travelling over Oman's airspace, Biman sources said.

Another aircraft of Biman went to Dubai to bring back the stranded passengers.

"At 12:50pm, a Biman flight reached Dubai to bring back the passengers of the flight that had the issue," Boshra Islam, general manager, public relations, Biman said.

This is not the first time the windshield of a Biman aircraft has cracked.

On January 21 this year, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flying from Dhaka to Saudi Arabia faced the same problem when it was carrying 297 passengers on board.

The windshield had also cracked two hours after takeoff.

In June, a Boeing 737-7 model Biman flight headed from Chattogram to Abu Dhabi was forced to make an emergency landing in Dhaka after its windshield cracked.

In February 2022, another Boeing 737 aircraft was grounded in Malaysia after the cockpit windshield cracked.

Another Boeing Dreamliner faced a similar issue in mid-air in August of that year as it was headed to Doha. It had to return to Dhaka from Indian airspace.