He went by the book

The training Biman's Captain Atiqur Rahman received every six months kicked in when he heard from the air traffic control (ATC) of Saidpur Airport that one of the wheels of his Bombardier Dash-8 fell off while taking off.

There were 71 souls on board Wednesday's domestic flight to Dhaka.

Talking to The Daily Star last night, he said he did not realise that one of the two wheels of his right landing gear had fallen off and when Saidpur Airport ATC informed him of the matter, he was surprised.

“It's true that I was surprised, but I was not scared. Because such incidents are part of flying,” he told The Daily Star.

“I contacted Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, informed them about the situation and asked them to prepare the runway for an emergency landing,” he said.

Capt Atiq said every six months they have to go through training, including how to make emergency landings in situations like the one on Wednesday.

“So I decided to follow due procedures, I prepared my crew and other staffers for emergency landing.”

He said before the aircraft's emergency landing in Dhaka, he made several low passes over Dhaka airport so that the ATC tower officials could see and be sure of which wheel was actually missing.

“After being sure that the number four wheel fell off, I decided to use the left-wing down technique to ensure that the left landing gear touched down first and the right landing gear touched down gently.

“Before landing, I briefed passengers about the incident and requested them to fasten and tighten their seat belts, hold on to the seat in front of them, not panic and that they might have a bumpy landing.” 

“As it touched down, the plane veered to the left and I applied significant amount of right rudder to hold the aircraft steady on the runway,” he said.

“Then I used the emergency brakes to bring the aircraft to a halt on the runway and the passengers were able to disembark through the front left door and by that time the airport authorities got all precautionary measures in place, including the deployment of fire engines to address any unwanted situation.”

Captain Atiq said it seemed to him that the passengers were not panicked. 

The pilot's skills were praised by aviation experts. They said had the pilot lost control while landing, the accident could have claimed lives.

Meanwhile, a Biman Bangladesh Airlines official investigating the matter speculated that the bearing of the wheel probably got jammed and locked up the wheel when it was taking off. The wheel eventually fell off after the bearing tore off, the investigator said.

Without one of its four core landing gear wheels, Captain Atiq successfully landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport using his efficiency and sound technique and saved the lives of 71 passengers and crew on board, the official said, requesting anonymity.

The investigator said they were suspecting that a faulty part or poor maintenance could have been the primary reason for the wheel failure. The situation could have been deadly if the aircraft veered off the runway and crashed.

The four-member probe body led by Capt Enam, deputy chief of flight safety of Biman, has started their enquiry into the incident.

Landing gear failures are not uncommon when it comes to the Canada-made Bombardier Dash-8. According to Reuters, Scandinavian airlines SAS decided to stop using the Dash-8 Q400 in 2007 after a series of crashes owing to landing gear issues.