Biman flight carrying 174 stranded Bangladeshis arrives in Dhaka from Rome

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A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight carrying at least 174 Bangladeshi passport holders arrived in Dhaka today after the passengers were stranded at Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport since Friday due to a technical problem with the aircraft.

The flight departed Rome for Dhaka at 9:00pm Bangladesh time, or 11:00pm local time, and landed in Dhaka at 12:34pm today, Biman General Manager for Public Relations Bushra Islam said in a message.

Flight BG306, carrying 259 passengers, had landed at Fiumicino on Friday morning for a scheduled refuelling stop when the technical fault was detected.

Biman’s engineering team later travelled to Rome with the required spare parts and equipment and repaired the aircraft, which had been placed in an Aircraft on Ground (AOG) condition.

The problem was subsequently fixed and the aircraft was declared serviceable, according to a Biman press release.

Passengers said travellers holding Canadian, US and other foreign passports or valid visas were permitted to clear Italian immigration and were accommodated in hotels. However, the 174 passengers travelling on Bangladeshi passports could not enter Italy and had to remain inside the airport.

“We have managed to provide hotel accommodation to those who have foreign passports, but not to those who were travelling with Bangladeshi passports,” Bushra had earlier told The Daily Star.