Police have cordoned off a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight at the Chattogram airport after it made an emergency landing on Sunday (Feb 24).
The flight landed around 5:40 pm, according to officials of the port city’s Shah Amanat International Airport, who said emergency services and security forces cordoned it off as soon as it came to a halt on the runway.
The plane has been identified as Flight BG 147, which travels the route from Dhaka to Dubai with a stop-over at Chattogram.
All the passengers have disembarked from the flight safely, Additional Commissioner Amena Begum of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police told Bangla Tribune before adding “We are to confirm what actually happened inside. The passengers are being debriefed.”
“The plane is on still on the runway. Officers from several law enforcing agencies, including the police are working at the scene,” Chattogram-based Armed Police Battalion-9 chief Mahbub Rashid said.
He told Bangla Tribune that all the passengers have been evacuated safely and that security has been beefed up in and around the airport.
A Biman official said on condition of anonymity said that after the flight took off from Dhaka, a male passenger started to threaten the passengers and the cabin crew with “something looking like a pistol”.
“The cabin crew managed to inform the cockpit, when Pilot Golam Shafi instructed to initiate security protocol before informing the ground control in Chattogram for an emergency landing. After the aircraft came to a halt on the runway, the crew evacuated the passengers. Only the suspect and crew Sagar is now on the plane,” he said.
“HIJACK ATTEMPT”
Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal, lawmaker and leader of JaSaD faction was on the flight.
“I saw a hijacker, who was a Bangalee, inside the aircraft. He opened fire,” he told news channel Somoy TV.
“All the passengers as well as the pilot and crew have been removed. Law enforcers are now trying to disembark the hijacker.”