Hundreds of Bangla-desh-bound passengers were stranded for nearly 10 hours at Dubai International Airport yesterday.
Bangladesh Biman flight BG047 that was scheduled to arrive at Dubai at 1.45pm was delayed by a bomb scare followed by technical problems minutes before take-off from Chittagong airport in Bangladesh.
An unidentified caller warned the airport authorities at Chittagong that a bomb has been planted aboard the DC-10 aircraft. There were 292 passengers on the flight.
Qazi Akhtar, station manager for Biman airlines at Dubai International Airport, told Gulf News that he only heard of the bomb scare and the technical problem through TV news broadcasts.
He said the flight was expected to arrive in Dubai at 10.37pm yesterday and then depart at 12.20am.
"By the time the news was flashed on TV some of the passengers had already checked in.
"Those who were yet to do so went home," he said. "By the time I left the airport nearly 95 passengers had already been checked in into economy class."
Akhtar said nobody had informed him of the delay. "We did not know what to tell the passengers. Neither did we get any official notification from Bangladesh. It was much later that we were informed of the delay," he said.
According to reports, Shaheen Farhad, manager of Chittagong's Shah Amanat airport told a news agency: "We evacuated all the passengers and searched the aircraft but did not find anything."
He added: "The Dubai-bound Biman flight was delayed for three hours as we got a phone call that there was a bomb in the aircraft."
According to one news agency, passengers and their luggage were also searched.
The plane later developed technical problems, prompting Biman authorities to postpone departure until late last night.
Gulf News
