A close call for US-Bangla

Disregarding instructions from the air traffic control, a US-Bangla plane got on the runway in Chattogram less than a minute before another aircraft was about to land, yet no probe was initiated about the close shave.

On January 18, 2024, just before 9:30am, a chartered flight of Arirang from Dhaka was cleared to land at Chattogram's Shah Amanat International Airport, according to audio recordings of conversations between the ATC and pilots. The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the recordings.

Six seconds later, a US-Bangla plane heading for Dhaka requested taxi permission to the same runway.

The ATC told the US-Bangla plane to taxi to the runway but stop at the holding point, which is a clearly marked line before the runway. Planes are not supposed to get on the runway without explicit permission to do so.

Seventeen seconds after the US-Bangla plane was given clearance to taxi, the air-traffic controller was heard screaming "Bangla Star hold position!"

Bangla Star is US-Bangla's call sign.

Eye-witnesses said the US-Bangla plane had begun crossing the holding point and getting on the runway with the Arirang flight about to touch down.

The air-traffic controller continued yelling "hold position" several times over and over for another 19 seconds, before cancelling the Arirang plane's landing permission and asking it to go around and attempt to land again.

All this happened in just 48 seconds.

The pilot of the US-Bangla aircraft went on to explain that he was permitted to get on the runway, according to the recording.

The air traffic officer took over the radio from the controller and said that he was right beside the controller when the clear instruction to hold was issued.

The pilot of the US-Bangla aircraft then said, "Ok sir my apology holding position now. It was a mistake we are holding now".

An audibly distraught air traffic controller continued yelling, "Very very dangerous because the traffic was on short final hover. Traffic is light traffic; that's why they were able to go around."

"Short final" refers to the final approach of the plane before its wheels touch the runway.

Aviation experts listening to the recording said that "light traffic" refers to the fact that the Arirang plane was a small chartered aircraft.

The US-Bangla plane however was a Boeing 737-800 with the capacity to carry as many as 189 passengers.

What happened on January 18 are called a runway incursion and pilot deviation. A disaster was averted as the ATC could see the US-Bangla plane.

Yet, no air safety report was filed even though the ATC said on the record how dangerous it was and the pilot admitting that he had made a mistake.

The Daily Star also spoke to the cockpit crew of the Arirang flight who confirmed that they were ordered to go around. Their flight pattern is also publicly available on flight tracking websites.

CAAB's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee's head Captain Salauhuddin M Rahmatullah confirmed that there was no investigation ongoing.

"If there was an air safety report, we would have investigated," he said.

When contacted, US-Bangla General Manager (Public Relations) Kamrul Islam said, "I do not know about this incident."

Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh's "Manual on the Runway Incursions and Collision Avoidance" states "It should be ensured that all runway incursions are reported and investigated in sufficient detail to identify specific causal and contributory factors."

The manual defines a "narrow miss" as the severest form of runway incursion.

CAAB's manual states that one of the things that need to be investigated in case of a runway incursion is a "breakdown in communications leading to failure to follow an air traffic control instruction".

Last July, there was a near miss on the runway of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, when a Biman aircraft got on the runway when another plane was about to touch down.

Officials in Biman told The Daily Star that they had launched an investigation and had grounded the two pilots.