At least 174 Bangladeshi passport holders, including elderly people, women and children, had been stranded at Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport for nearly 33 hours since landing there at 7:20am (Rome time) on Friday, after a technical glitch grounded a Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft.
Videos shared by passengers, copies of which were obtained by The Daily Star, showed some lying on the airport floor, while others sat on chairs and inside a lounge. Passengers and their relatives complained of exhaustion, illness, lack of sleep and difficulty accessing medicines and other essentials.
Amina Anjum Tonni, a private-sector employee in Dhaka whose parents are among those stranded, described their ordeal.
“It has already been over 28 hours. My father has had three bypass heart surgeries, and he has had no sleep at all, having sat upright the entire time,” she told The Daily Star around 7:30pm (Dhaka time) yesterday.
She added that passengers were initially kept inside the aircraft for around eight hours, during which the air-conditioning was not running, and were served only one meal. They were later taken to a waiting area.
“At one point, those with passports from Canada and the United States were taken to a hotel. Meanwhile, as night fell in Rome, the Bangladeshi passengers were taken to a lounge where they could get some food, but there were no facilities for them to rest. They were taken back to the waiting area at dawn and have been there ever since.”
She said some passengers were travelling with babies but had no access to diapers or baby food.
The Toronto-Rome-Dhaka flight BG306, carrying 259 passengers, landed at Fiumicino on Friday morning for a scheduled refuelling stop when the technical fault was detected.
According to passengers, those holding Canadian, US or other foreign passports or relevant visas were allowed to clear Italian immigration and accommodated in hotels, while 174 Bangladeshi passport holders were unable to enter Italy and had to remain inside the airport.
Contacted by The Daily Star, Bushra Islam, general manager of public relations at Biman, said the airline had been unable to arrange hotels for the stranded passengers because they could not clear immigration. “We have managed to provide hotel accommodation to those who have foreign passports, but not to those who were travelling with Bangladeshi passports.”
She added that there was no hotel inside Rome airport, unlike at airports in some other cities, such as Dubai. “We have kept the passengers in a holding lounge and provided all kinds of facilities. One of the female passengers fell sick, and our country manager there arranged medicine for her.”
Passengers, however, alleged that the arrangements were inadequate.
In a video obtained by The Daily Star, Md Abu Sayeed, a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Independent University, Bangladesh, said elderly passengers, children and others had fallen ill during the prolonged wait.
He said the Bangladeshi passport holders had to spend the night on the floor or on chairs before being moved to a lounge.
Another passenger, Mohammad Rokonur Rahman, said elderly people, diabetic patients and children were particularly vulnerable, as some did not have access to their regular medication. He alleged that passengers were not receiving adequate information or assistance.
In a statement on Friday night, Biman said hotels had been arranged for all passengers. Its subsequent explanation, however, said accommodation could only be provided to passengers permitted to clear Italian immigration.
In an update yesterday, Biman said aircraft S2-AJY remained “AOG” (Aircraft on Ground) in Rome and that an engineering team carrying spare parts and equipment had left Dhaka at 1:53pm (Dhaka time) and was expected to reach Rome at 7:17pm (Rome time) to begin repairs immediately.
Subject to successful repairs, BG306 was scheduled to leave Rome at 11:00pm (Rome time) yesterday and arrive in Dhaka at 11:30am (Dhaka time) today.
If the flight left at the scheduled time, the passengers would have spent around 39 hours and 40 minutes in Rome since the aircraft landed there.
Md Ohidul Haque, whose mother is among the stranded passengers, wrote in a Facebook post around 6:50pm yesterday that the passengers had suffered severe physical and mental distress.
He alleged that adequate food, water and regular updates were not available and said his mother had been left exhausted by the prolonged wait.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/biman-flight-toronto-174-bangladeshis-stranded-over-33hrs-rome-4243241
