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JS body blasts civil aviation ministry

It was blamed for plight of 600 passengers stranded in Riyadh, Dubai, Dhaka

Staff Correspondent
A parliamentary body yesterday blasted the civil aviation ministry for refusing Biman's plea to give a Boeing aircraft extension of waiver for registration, causing hundreds of passengers stranded at home and abroad.
The parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation and tourism ministry said all the members of the body were "very much angry" with the ministry's top officials' attitude.
The ministry top officials want to "create an image crisis for the government", the committee members observed at a meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
Nearly 600 passengers were stranded last week at hotels in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhaka after Biman was forced to use a smaller aircraft
on two routes.
The problem arose on June 14 when the ministry refused to give a 24-year-old leased Boeing 747-200 extension of waiver for registration, which forced Biman to halt its flights with that aircraft.
The plane was running on Dhaka-Jeddah and Dhaka-Dammam-Riyadh routes.
On June 19, Biman however resumed flights with the leased Boeing after the ministry awarded verbal permission to use the plane for carrying passengers between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, officials say.
"After five days of passengers' sufferings, the ministry has given verbal permission to fly the same aircraft. We asked the secretary to the ministry where the question of security has gone now. But he could not give any reply," Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal, member of the committee, told reporters after the meeting.
Badal observed that only for the ministry's whimsical decision, hundreds of Biman passengers had to face immense sufferings in Dhaka and other international airports. The passengers were stranded there. Biman had to lose crores of taka for arranging the passengers' accommodation and other necessaries.
"We are very much disappointed and embarrassed at the ministry officials' behaviour. They want to put the government in danger over flying of a Boeing aircraft. We smell a rat in it," he added.
"It was totally unacceptable the way the ministry top officials handled the issue. They even could not give any reply to this end," Badal, also executive president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, told reporters emerging from the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
He said the leased aircraft has been flown for about 2,200 block hours without any disruption. But intriguingly, the ministry did not give its nod to fly the aircraft on the pretext of security, which is not acceptable, he observed.
Biman officials at the meeting said the ministry had earlier given a six-month permission to operate flights with the Boeing without having it registered to ensure hassle-free hajj flights last year.
That permission expired on May 2, but Biman, without receiving official consent of the ministry, extended the lease of the aircraft from the Nigeria-based Kabo Air for another two months and used ituntil June 13.
Quoting Biman officials, Badal saitf Biman has asked for extension of the permission for three to four times after signing the lease agreement, but the ministry remained unresponsive.
Biman officials also told the meeting they have clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh to use the plane untiT July 2, but the management halted the flights with the Boeing as the ministry refused to give its consent.