The passengers of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, destined to fly to Muscat, Oman from the Chittagong airport on Wednesday, staged a protest inside the airport on Thursday.
At least 50 passengers, who complained that they had been confined inside Chittagong’s Shah Amanat International Airport since 10pm on Wednesday, staged the demonstration, reports UNB.
Later, airport and Biman officials arrived at the spot and brought the situation under control.
Faruk Mirza, one of the passengers of the flight, said they had been stuck in the airport due to a collapse in Biman’s flight schedule.
“The Muscat-bound flight was scheduled to fly at 10pm on Wednesday, but the authorities rescheduled the departure time to 5am on Thursday... they even failed to provide any flight in the morning. Now they are saying the flight will take off at 7pm,” he said.
An airport source said Biman’s flight schedule was disrupted as flight operations had been suspended in Chittagong airport following the emergency landing of a Cox’s Bazar-bound US-Bangla Airlines flight, with 164 passengers on board, with a malfunctioning nose gear.
Some of the irate passengers said the authorities were supposed to arrange hotel accommodation for them if the flight was delayed, but they failed to do it.
Wing Commander Sarowar- e-Jahan, manager of the airport, said: "We tried to calm down the agitated passengers. The Biman officials managed the situation by assuring them of arranging another flight as soon as possible."
Monday, March 17, 2025
