Biman Bangladesh flight emergency landing: passengers leave by another plane 19 hours later

A replacement aircraft from Biman Bangladesh Airlines took off for Dubai on Thursday with nearly 400 passengers after their earlier flight made an emergency landing at Nagpur airport following detection of smoke in the hold area.

On Wednesday night when flight BG-347 was on its way to Dubai from Dhaka, the pilot received an alert from the fire alarm system forcing him to land the aircraft at Nagpur airport at 10.45 pm with 396 passengers and 12 crew members.

A full emergency was declared at the airport and the aircraft, after landing, was taken to an isolation bay where the passengers disembarked safely and the cargo was offloaded.

Although smoke was reported in the aircraft's hold, a thorough examination showed no signs of fire, officials said.

Almost 19 hours after the emergency landing, passengers continued with their journey and the replacement flight took off at 5:30 pm on Thursday.

"The passengers were flown to their destination on another flight of the company at 5.30 pm on Thursday. The passengers were served snacks and refreshments at the terminal building by the airlines," the official told PTI.

Earlier, the officials said the pilot received an alert from the fire alarm system and immediately notified the Airport Operations Control Centre and the System Operations Command Centre, prompting the authorities to divert the flight to Nagpur.

"A decision was taken to divert the flight to Nagpur and full emergency was declared. The aircraft was taken to the isolation bay and passengers as well as crew were safely de-boarded.

"Cargo in the rear hold was off-loaded, while a visual inspection of the aircraft hold was carried out by the fire staff. No fire was detected. The aircraft was also checked by the maintenance staff," the official said.

A senior airport official said the flight faced "technical issues", though he did not elaborate.