Plane accidents: Pilots blamed

They said those 'adventurous' pilots sometime ignore 'aviation warning' from the control tower and face accident during landing at the airport.

"At the same time, the officials concerned sometime forget time-difference and allows landing of two flights at a time, which is a serous negligence to duty," sources said.

The ultimate preys of such whims and negligence are innocent passengers who put their confidence 'out of patriotism' upon the national flag carrier, sources added.

The latest aircraft accident was on July 1 involving a DC-10 aircraft that crash-landed at the airport with 215 passengers on board, which could narrowly averted huge human casualties.

On February 24, 2000, the control tower officials allowed two flights, one GMG and another Bangladesh Biman, to land at the same time at Shah Amanat Airport. Although no accident was occurred, thanks to the presence of mind of Biman pilot, an altercation was developed between the Biman pilot and tower officials over the issue, sources said.

They said the Biman flight (F-28), which was only 50-nautical mile ahead of the GMG flight on that day, was allowed to land at the airport and within a minute. At the same time, the GMG flight also got green signal. Sensing the danger, the F-28 pilot hovered for 18 minutes on the sky, thereby created a difference of seven minutes with the GMG flight (jet-5) and landed safely afterwards.

Some pilots blamed incompetence of the control tower officials saying this sometimes pushed us to grave embarrassment.

The flight operations on both domestic and international routes through this airport has remarkably been increased after completion of the airport renovation and runway extension project at a cost of Tk 650 crore, airport sources said. They said Biman pilots don't hesitate to land taking extra risk while foreign pilots always avoid any sort of adventurism.

"Our pilots used to land amid risk ignoring the invisibility and gusty wind, which is tantamount to invite serious risk both to lives and properties," airport sources said.

The adventurous attitude of Biman pilots has increased after expansion of the length and capacity of Chittagong airport's runway under the extension project. Before the extension, only two flights had fallen into accident, they said.

Thick fog has caused accident to a United Nation's cargo flight few years ago. The cargo from Antonov in Russia skidded off the runway due to fog while trying to stop at the hanger. Another ATP flight skidded off the runway and stuck into mud while landing amid heavy rain, sources said.

The risk-taking is seen largely among the pilots who operate flights between Chittagong and Middle East countries and such adventurism is seen to a great extent during winters, sources said.