Booters reach Muscat after mid-air scare
Bangladesh national football team landed in Muscat safely yesterday noon after surviving a scare in the early hours of Monday as their original flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was forced to return to the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport more than an hour after take-off due to a technical glitch.
The team later flew to Muscat by another flight for a 10-day training camp ahead of their World Cup qualifying fixture against Oman on November 14.
The footballers and officials were scared when the flight captain mid-air made the sudden announcement that the aircraft would return to Dhaka. The aircraft, however, landed at the airport at around 1:45am.
“Our flight was scheduled to depart at 9.45pm but it was delayed by nearly two hours. We also waited for almost another hour after boarding the aircraft.
“After take-off, the flight hovered in the air for half an hour. Then the sudden announcement came from the captain that we were going back to Dhaka because of some technical glitch,” team manager Satyjit Das Rupu told The Daily Star over phone a few minutes before the second take-off in the morning.
After reaching Muscat, assistant coach Masud Kaiser told the Daily Star that they checked in at Hotel Radisson without any further trouble.
“We all were a bit scared after hearing the announcement as power went off in some portions of the cabin and the air-conditioning system was not working properly. However, we landed in Dhaka safely and flew out again at 11:00am in the morning,” said Kaiser.
He also informed the team would start training this morning focusing on tactical aspects of the game.
Players like Mahbubur Rahman Sufil and Ashraful Islam Rana also shared their experiences of the situation on their social media accounts.
Manager Rupu informed that captain Jamal Bhuiyan also reached Muscat after delivering commentary on Barcelona’s La Liga match against Levante while head coach Jamie Day and assistant coach Stuart Watkiss were scheduled to reach there later in the night.
Bangladesh are at the bottom of Group E with a single point from three games, but a dominating draw against India in Kolkata last month following a close 2-0 defeat against Qatar at home lifted the spirit of the footballers and everyone concerned.
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