Nepal trip ends at Dhaka airport

It was at 8:45am on Wednesday when Towhid Firoze, a World Bank official, and I reached the Shahjalal International Airport to take a Biman flight for Kathmandu at 11:00am. We would be there to join a conference on hydropower the following day.

The airport premises looked quite nice, unlike most other days, as there was no usual crowd of visitors outside the terminal. The entrance to the terminal was unusually clean. Things have changed here for the better since the establishment was put on red alert three months ago.

There was no rush at the check in counters either. Towhid, also a former journalist, had checked in his luggage, while I just had a carryon bag. With our passports   stamped by officials, we crossed the immigration within minutes. It was a hassle-free process since you don't need any visa to go to Nepal.

We had some time to pass. We took tea, went to the duty free shops and were very pleased to see the unusually clean and stink-free toilets.

Around 10:30am, we looked at the flight information display and found that the Biman flight would be delayed by an hour.

“You see, this is why I never trust Biman. They would always be late,” said Towhid.

I argued with him. I went to Kolkata last year on a Biman flight which had taken off 15 minutes ahead of the schedule and touched down in Kolkata accordingly. And I had the same experience on the return flight.

We went back to have some snacks. Around noon, it seemed that the flight would be delayed further. The flight information display now updates the flight status to “Delayed”, but there is no mention of any probable take off. Even the Biman authorities would not make any announcement about the reason for the delay.

As I am set to return home on Friday, wasting time at Dhaka airport means I would miss out on something in Kathmandu. I thought we need to look for a Biman official to know what went wrong with the flight.

But once you cross the immigration channel, you won't find any Biman booth. Towhid then phoned his travel agent.

“What?” his voice worried me.

Hanging up his phone, Towhid dropped the bombshell. “A Turkish airliner has crash-landed at Kathmandu airport. Flight operations at the airport have been suspended until the Nepalese army clears the runway.”

I went on the internet on my phone and saw the photograph and news of the Turkish airliner tilted on a grass airstrip at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

“So what do we do now? When will the airport be reopened?” I asked Towhid who called up the travel agent again. He was told that the Nepal authorities were hoping to reopen the airport after 5:00pm.

We were getting very bored with the delay when an announcement was made asking the Kathmandu-bound Biman passengers to have complementary lunch at the Spice restaurant.

As we sat for lunch with other passengers, we realised that the others had no idea about the accident in Kathmandu. Towhid has already been informed by the organiser World Bank that the regional conference might be cancelled as all flights, except for the one of Biman, to Kathmandu have been cancelled for the day. None of the participants of the conference from outside Kathmandu could land there.

The organisers offered apologies for the cancellation of the programme. “So it's time to go home,” Towhid said.

We never had such an experience of cancelling a trip after crossing the Immigration. So what's the process? One immigration police told us to go to the Arrival section. But before going there, Towhid needs to collect his luggage. We consulted yet another policeman who told us to go to Immigration high ups.

We met the immigration boss, a real gentleman, who asked us to fill in a form and submit it along with the passport. We sat in his room, chatting and rediscovering our log lost social connections. An hour passed by. The immigration chief was busy with his official works that included deporting illegal foreign nationals.

I could overhear two officers discussing the story of one such illegal foreign national. He is a Tanzanian sailor who had jumped from his ship in Chittagong around 11 years ago. He was put behind bars eight years ago for travelling without any document. The immigration department contacted his relatives in Tanzania to send him some documents. Now he is being deported.

I did not notice when this tall and timid Tanzanian entered the room and sat on a sofa close to me. I looked at him when he was talking in Bangla to an immigration officer. I could not help feeling bad that this man in his late thirties has lost eight invaluable years of his life behind bars in Bangladesh.

After an hour, I received my passport from the immigration. I was ready to go home, but I wanted to talk to this man. “Why did you decide to jump from the ship?” I asked him quickly.

“It was Allah's wish,” he replied.

“Had you been so poor in Tanzania that you decided to work in Chittagong?”

“We are poor. I've not seen my family for years. Today I am going back home,” said the deportee. As he walked out of the room, I was taken aback by the sight that he was limping. He had problems in his right leg.

We then crossed the Arrival immigration and as suggested by officials, went to belt number 5 to collect the luggage. But there was nothing in that belt. So we contacted a help desk and were told that we need to go to the Lost and Found department.

A staff of the Lost and Found section took us to belt 5 again. We stood there, saw the help going to the other side of the belt and finding Towhid's luggage in a minute.

We finally came out of the airport at 4:00pm. I did not bother finding out if the Biman flight left for Kathmandu that day. For me, the national carrier is a shy host. Its guests have to know the fate of their journey on their own.