Executive jets for VVIPs soon

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon yesterday said the government would purchase executive jet airplanes for carrying VVIPs soon.

The minister said this while talking to journalists after a standing committee meeting in the afternoon, reports UNB.

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The finance ministry has already agreed to provide the money, he said.

On Sunday, a VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Budapest in Hungary made an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan due to a technical glitch.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the Ministry of Civil Aviation yesterday formed two separate committees to investigate the emergency landing of the VVIP flight.

Captain Fazal Mahmud Chowdhury, Biman's chief of technical, would lead the four-member probe body, said Shakil Meraj, general manager (public relation department) of Biman, told The Daily Star.

The committee was asked to submit its report by December 1, he added.

Swapan Kumar Sarkar, additional secretary of the civil aviation ministry, would lead the other committee, Menon told journalists at his office at the secretariat.  

After four hours of repair and a test run, the plane resumed its journey to Hungary where it landed at 11:00pm on Sunday Bangladesh time, Biman sources said.

Hasina was on her way to Hungary on a four-day visit to attend the Budapest Water Summit 2016 which began yesterday.

Meanwhile, in a meeting, the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation yesterday asked the ministry to ensure exemplary punishment to the people responsible for the incident.