NOTE: There's a photo on the article page. SOURCE: The New Nation (Bangladesh) http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_12946.shtml Injured pilots, Muyeed Chy brought to CMH, Dhaka: Biman aircraft overshoots runway in Sylhet, 80 hurt By Sylhet Correspondent Oct 8, 2004, 12:50 An F-28 aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines skidded off the runaway and fell into a canal while landing at Sylhet Osmani International Airport at about 9 am yesterday injuring 80 of the 82 passengers and crew on board. A number of the injured was admitted to the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital and some others taken to different clinics in the metropolitan city. None of the injured was critical. Witnesses said, the accident occurred as the plane overshot the runway touching down in rainy and windy weather and fell into a canal full of water with its nose sunk in mud. After the accident some passengers and crew of the plane were able to come out breaking through some doors. However, former adviser of Caretaker Government and a former MD of Biman, Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury and pilot captain Shahana remained trapped at the cabin and the cockpit respectively. Captain Shahana was rescued three hours after the accident and Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury at 3 pm, six hours after the mishap. Muyeed Chowdhury, Captain Shahana and Co-pilot Abu Safa and a passenger were later later flown to Dhaka and admitted to the Combined Military Hospital. The rescue operation took time due to heavy rainfall caused by the land depression that moved to northeastern part of the country yesterday. Army personnel, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Fire Brigade jointly carried out the rescue operation. They were later joined by Air Force personnel reaching Sylhet from Dhaka in a helicopter. Witnesses said that the BG flight 601, the day's first flight to the spiritual capital of Bangladesh, touched down the middle of the runway at great speed amid heavy rainfall and jumped onto a canal about 30 metres on the east side of the runway. Sylhet Osmani Airport officials refrained from telling anything or making any comment on the accident. "The aircraft normally touched the land but could not control its speed and dived into the canal crossing the last limit of the runway and a piece of grassland," official news agency BSS quoted a witness as saying. Golam Kibria, one of the 78 passengers of the aircraft, later said that a severe jolt unseated many of the passengers, including some women and children Firefighters, ambulances and airport workers rushed to the scene, while a special civil aviation rescue team from Dhaka joined them later reaching there in an air force helicopter which also carried managing directors of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority. They needed nearly three hours to evacuate all passengers and crew with Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, who was apparently trapped with his legs stuck inside, being the last person to be rescued. The passengers included several other VIPs, including chairman of the privatization board Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, whip Fazlul Haque Aspia and BNP lawmaker Moazzem Hossain Alal. Enam Chowdhury is being treated at a private clinic here. A Biman Bangladesh statement issued in Dhaka primarily blamed bad weather for the accident while officials said a probe body was formed immediately to find out what caused the aircraft to skid off the runway. It said the passengers were reached to their destinations under the Biman arrangements. State Minister for Civil Aviation Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin ordered a separate inquiry by a committee headed by the Civil Aviation Authority chairman. The accident, however, could not suspend the normal operations of the airport, the third biggest in the country. Civil Aviation officials recalled a similar type of accident in December, 1997 at Sylhet Airport when another F-28 Biman aircraft dived into a canal. None of the passengers died or was critically injured in that accident. Mayor of Sylhet City Corporation, Badar Uddin Kamran, Elyas Ali MP, Dildar Hossain MP, high officials of Sylhet Division rushed to the spot after the accident and oversaw the rescue operation. Soon after the accident a GMG flight was cancelled. The remaining Biman flights were operated as normal as the F-28 aircraft that fell into accident did not block the runway.