Seven on 8-day fresh remand for PM’s flight glitch

A Dhaka court on Friday placed seven officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on an eight-day fresh remand in a case filed for a glitch in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s special flight on November 27.

Lawyers and court officials said Metropolitan Magistrate Wayezkuruni Khan Chowdhury passed the order after Mahbub Alam, inspector of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTCU), sought a 10-day fresh remand for quizzing them more, reports BSS.

They are Chief Engineer (Production) Debesh Chowdhury, Chief Engineer (Inspection and Quality Control) SA Siddique, Principal Engineer Billal Hossain and Engineering Officers Samiul Haque, Lutfor Rahman, Milon Chandra Biswas and Zakir Hossin.

Earlier, on December 22, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakrabarty granted a seven-day remand to each of them.

Nine employees of Bangladesh Biman Airlines were 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 25 days after the incident.

On November 27, a Biman flight carrying the prime minister had to make an emergency landing at the Ashgabat International Airport Turkmenistan on her way to Budapest as engine-1 of the plane was losing oil pressure. After the landing, engineers found that a nut was loose causing the oil pressure loss.

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 others and filed case against them.