Hundreds of passengers suffered several hours of delay as the authorities suspended all flight operations at Dhaka鈥檚 Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday afternoon after a fire broke out at around 2:15pm at its cargo village.
At least 11 flights, including nine international ones, were diverted to Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram and Osmani International Airport in Sylhet at the time.
The flight operation, however, at the HSIA resumed at around 9:00pm, after nearly seven hours of fire fighting by the Fire Service department and armed forces had brought the situation under control.
鈥楩light operation resumed at the airport through a flight landing at 9:06pm,鈥� said HSIA executive director Bangladesh Air Force Group Captain SM Ragib Samad.
Earlier in the day, Md Masudul Hasan Masud, the executive director鈥檚 representative at the HSIA, at 3:30pm said that all flight operations at the airport were suspended due to the fire.
Following the suspension of the flight operations, passengers of different local and international flights remained stranded inside the airport.
They were seen waiting for their flights for hours as some of them alleged that they were not getting any information from the airport authorities when the flight operation might resume.
The situation caused disruption to the international flight operations in the Chattogram and Sylhet airports too.聽
According to Shah Amanat Airport authorities, eight flights, both domestic and international, were diverted to Chattogram after Dhaka airport operations were halted, 抖阴精品 staff correspondent in Chattogram reported.
Shah Amanat International Airport鈥檚 public relations officer Engineer Mohammad Ibrahim Khalil confirmed that all diverted flights landed safely, adding that operations at the Chattogram airport remained normal despite the sudden pressure.
However, the closure of Dhaka airport created a ripple effect, grounding several scheduled departures from Chattogram, said Ibrahim Khalil.
Five domestic flights from Chattogram to Dhaka could not depart, while two international flights bound for Dubai and Sharjah were also delayed, affecting more than a thousand passengers.
Airport officials said that the two Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft that arrived from Dhaka were supposed to operate return flights to Dubai and Sharjah, but those flights remained grounded as the planes could not offload passengers from Dhaka.
By evening, hundreds of passengers waiting to travel to the Middle East crowded the departure areas of Shah Amanat International Airport.
Authorities, citing operational constraints, restricted entry to the terminal building, leaving many waiting outside with their luggage.
An expatriate Abdur Rahim from Mirsarai upazila of Chattogram said, 鈥業 came to the airport with my family around 4:00pm for a 7:00pm flight to Dubai. They told us the plane hasn鈥檛 arrived yet because of the fire in Dhaka.鈥�
He alleged, 鈥楽ince nothing happened in Chattogram, so why should our flight be delayed? We鈥檝e been standing outside for hours with no clear information.鈥�
Meanwhile, 抖阴精品 staff correspondent from Sylhet reported that three international flights diverted to Osmani International Airport, Sylhet on the day after the flight operations were suspended at HSIA.聽
Of them, one was Riyadh to Dhaka flight operated by Biman Bangladesh Airlines and two US-Bangla Airlines flights operated from Singapore and Malay to Dhaka, Sylhet airport director Hafiz Ahmed said.
He told 抖阴精品 that the Dhaka-bound flights were diverted to Sylhet as an alternative destination due to the fire.
