A female trainee pilot died Wednesday after an aircraft of Bangladesh Flying Academy and General Aviation Limited crashed on the runway and caught fire while making an emergency landing at Shah Makhdum Airport in Rajshahi.
The trainer in the aircraft was also severely injured, receiving 80% burns on his body.
The dead Tamanna Rahman Hridi, 22, was daughter of Dr Anisur Rahman who resides in the capital's Nikunju 2 and her hometown was in Tangail.
She was in the air on a Cessna D152 aircraft of Bangladesh Flying Academy, a major government flight training institution in Bangladesh.
The trainer was identified as Lt Col (retd) Shahed Kamal.
When asked about the incident, Setafur Rahman, manager of Shah Makhdum Airport, said: “Sensing some technical faults, Tamanna tried to land the plane within three minutes after it took flight. When the plane touched the runway, its front wheel broke off and the aircraft plunged about 15-20 feet outside the runway.”
“After the plane came to a halt, it caught fire,” he added.
He said Tamanna may have died upon impact but trainer Shahed Kamal managed to get out of the blazed plane.
Soon after the incident, the staff of the airport rushed to the spot and rescued the trainer. He was taken to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rajshahi. Later, he was flown to CMH in Dhaka by an air ambulance around 4:30pm.
Fire brigade members went to the spot after about 20 minutes on the incident and doused the flames however, the by the time reached, most parts of the aircraft was burned down.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has formed a four-member committee to investigate the incident, Rajshahi airport Manager Setafur confirmed quoting an official of CAAB. The committee members have already visited the spot Wednesday afternoon, Setafur added.
The body of deceased Tamanna was set to be sent to Dhaka at night on an airbus after being reported for autopsy at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) in the evening, confirmed city’s Shah Makhdum police station Officer-in-Charge Mizanur Rahman.
OC Mizanur also said soon Rajshahi Deputy Commissioner Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury and a team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) visited the spot soon after the incident.
