Biman fires captain for negligence

Biman has fired Capt Dildar Ahmed Tufail for negligence in duty while captaining a flight on January 15.

He was reportedly napping in the crew rest area, leaving the cockpit of the Boeing 777-300ER technically unmanned.

A passenger had a heart attack during the overnight flight to Dhaka from Jeddah.

Capt Tufail did not declare medical emergency and landed the plane in Dhaka four hours after the incident.

The passenger, Kabir Ahmed, a migrant worker from Noakhali, was pronounced dead on arrival at a city hospital.

Aviation rules allow captains to take rest on flights longer than 8 hours, but only when a relief crew, which is usually on standby, takes over.

There was no relief crew as this was only a six-hour flight.

The cockpit is supposed to be manned by two pilots capable of flying the plane independently if required.

On this particular flight, Capt Tufail was the pilot in command. He had Irfan Ul Haq beside him who was under training and not qualified to fly the plane. The flight was actually Irfan's test flight.

Capt Fariduzzaman, a retired pilot, was evaluating Irfan from the jump seat in the cockpit. He also didn't have a pilot's licence as he was well over the age limit of 65 for being a pilot.

According to sources, when Capt Tufail went into the rest area, he left the plane in the hands of people who are not authorised to fly the plane.

Following an announcement by the cabin crew, a doctor on board, ABM Haroon, managing director of Samorita Hospital, advised emergency landing.

According to aviation rules, in such cases, a "medical emergency" is to be raised by the pilot, which notifies every nearby airport of a possible arrival with the need for emergency medical support.

However, Tufail did not divert or raise the alarm, confirmed civil aviation insiders looking into the event. The mandatory air safety report was also not filed after the flight.

Following an investigation, Biman authorities found evidence of Capt Tufail's negligence and served him a show-cause notice.

As the authorities were not convinced by his reply, Biman fired him.