Passengers face ordeal
With every minute Azizur Rahman’s frustration grew and it was evident in his pacing inside a hotel room in Dhaka. He was really worried that his job in London could be gone by the time he reaches the United Kingdom. Jobs are really hard to get these days of sluggish world economy.
“I was supposed to join work today,” said Azizur later that Thursday afternoon before meeting the Biman managing director. His flight to London scheduled for early Wednesday was cancelled.
Azizur, who works for a fashion designer house, was among 230 Biman passengers who had got stranded in different hotels in Dhaka and among 30 who were staying at Hotel Aero-Link International Ltd in Uttara.
Azizur was lucky. His two brothers, a cousin and he were able to get on a flight of another airline Thursday night after having talks with the Biman managing director. He and his brothers came to Bangladesh on a 10-day leave to see their ailing grandmother.
While Azizur and his brothers left for London, the other passengers were still stuck in Dhaka. Their ordeals started triggering strong resentment and anger.
Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, who is still languishing in a hotel in Uttara, said, “Once I get back to London, I’ll sit with all Bangladeshi passengers and take Biman to the UK court for damages.”
Most flew from Sylhet on Tuesday to catch the London flight early Wednesday and little did they know about the trouble that waited for them in Dhaka.
They complained to The Daily Star that they have been left in the dark about possible date and time of their flight, which is making their lives the more difficult.
“This is inhuman,” said Nazrul, a British citizen, who came to Bangladesh in November and was returning to London for an emergency business meeting. Hotelier Nazrul said his wife is calling him frequently from London and asking him to get to London quick since he has to sign a deal that has a deadline.
“We have just been dumped by Biman,” he said.
While Nazrul impatiently waited for his flight to London, more Biman passengers joined in the wait as the national flag carrier’s Thursday flight to London had to return to Dhaka following apparently a fire onboard.
FLIGHT DEBACLE
On Wednesday, Biman did not carry any London passengers from Dhaka. The scheduled London flight was cancelled and the aircraft was sent to Dubai to offload passengers there and then sent to Amman, Jordan, to pick up stranded Biman passengers. An earlier Biman flight to London had made an emergency landing in Amman and its 198 passengers were there waiting to get to London.
Things went even worse for Biman Thursday when its scheduled Sylhet-Dhaka-Dubai-London flight returned to Dhaka with 221 passengers after the crew discovered smoke coming out of the cargo bay of the Airbus. The crew had to use the onboard fire extinguishers. The plane had taken off from Sylhet at 12:20pm Thursday after a couple of hours’ delay.
Biman MD and Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Zakiul Islam, however, said, “Hopefully, the backlog will be over as an Airbus with the 221 passengers will fly early Saturday.”
Biman sources said the flight will carry mostly stranded passengers of Wednesday’s and Thursday’s flights.
Biman failing to manage its flight schedules with its aging fleet has become a frequent phenomenon, passengers say. Only a few days ago Biman passengers heading for the middle-east had to endure delays as long as 40 hours.
-With The Daily Star input
