Biman aircraft grounded in Malaysia over cracked windshield

A Boeing 737 aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines remained grounded in Malaysia since February 15, 2022 due to a crack on its windshield.

According to the flight operations department of Biman, flight BG086 departed from Dhaka for Kuala Lumpur at around 11:30 pm (local time) on Monday with 126 passengers on board.

After landing at Kuala Lumpur airport yesterday morning, the pilot, Captain Shakhawat Hossain, saw a crack on the windshield of the aircraft.

The aircraft was later grounded for repairs after the matter was reported to the Biman authorities in Dhaka, sources in the national flag carrier said.

Biman was forced to cancel its return flight from Kuala Lumpur which was scheduled to depart on Tuesday with 146 passengers.

However, another Boeing 737 which was sent to Kuala Lumpur, brought back the stranded passengers to Dhaka last night.

In the special flight, Biman sent its engineers and necessary equipment to Malaysia to change the windshield.

Not only cracks on the windshield, but also a variety of problems are often detected in this Boeing 737 aircraft.

Biman in January purchased two 20-year-old Boeing 737-800 planes, including the grounded one, at Tk 168 crore -- which the national flag carrier had earlier leased from Celestial Aviation Trading Ltd, Ireland in 2009.

Sources said, Biman was forced to purchase the two aircrafts since it would take a huge amount of money to return those to the leasing company as per the lease agreement.

Since February 2, a brand new Dash-8 aircraft of Biman also remained grounded due to damage of its engines apparently due to the pilot's flawed handling of the aircraft, sources in Biman said.