Bangladesh table tennis, kabaddi teams stranded at Bangkok airport

Six members of the Bangladesh table tennis team that participated in the Asian Games in Japan have been stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok for more than 36 hours, waiting to return home. 

They were joined yesterday by 14 members of the Bangladesh men’s kabaddi team, with all of them stranded near a boarding gate of Thailand's biggest airport amid widespread delays and cancellations of Thai Airways flights to and from the Thai capital following heavy flooding in and around Bangkok.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The table tennis team’s ordeal began on Saturday morning when their scheduled flight from Japan to Bangkok was delayed by almost 12 hours due to a typhoon. By the time they arrived in Bangkok, they had already missed their scheduled flight home. Since then, new departure schedules have appeared and passed without their flight taking off.

Image

Mohsinul Alam Jhinu, the Bangladesh team’s coach, who is stranded along with two male and three female table tennis players as well as the 14 kabaddi team members, said they were in a desperate situation as they watched other flights take off while their Thai Airways flight remained grounded.

The other members of the table tennis team are Ramhim Liam Bom, Imrul Kayes Emon, Sonam Sultana Soma, Nowrin Sultana Mahi and Samantha Hossain Tushi. Team manager and federation general secretary Saidul Haque Sadi, along with the men’s team’s top player Muhtasin Ahmed Hridoy, were fortunate enough to return home as they had tickets on a Cathay Pacific flight.

Read more

Bangkok declares disaster after homes flooded, roads submerged by heavy rain

“We are in a desperate situation. We have been handed three boarding tickets in two days but still no sign of our flight taking off,” Jhinu told The Daily Star over phone from Suvarnabhumi Airport while waiting for the latest scheduled departure on Monday morning.

International media reported that Bangkok authorities declared a flood disaster across the Thai capital on Saturday after almost 48 hours of heavy rain left homes, shops and roads waterlogged and residents wading through waist-deep water.

“Flooding in several areas has affected the ability of Thai Airways’ ground handling personnel to travel to work, resulting in insufficient staffing to support ground handling operations. In addition, some of Thai Airways’ baggage carts have experienced operational issues, further affecting ground handling processes for both departing flights and baggage handling for arriving flights. These factors have resulted in delays to some departing flights and longer-than-usual waiting times for baggage among arriving passengers,” said areport on Kaohoon International, a Bangkok-based digital news platform, on Sunday night.

Jhinu said they had not been provided with any accommodation by the airline authorities over the past two days. Instead, the five table tennis players were given 400 Thai baht each on Saturday night and 1,200 Thai baht each on Sunday for food. Since yesterday evening, though, no allowance has been provided, he said.

“I have come to Thailand many times, but this time has been very different. The washrooms are unclean and everything is messy. I haven’t seen it like this before, probably this time due to the flood, but now I can’t see any flood water near the airport,” said Jhinu, adding that he had noticed some activity involving the Thai Airways flight that is supposed to take them home.