What happened inside Biman aircraft

A gunman, who has already been killed in a brief commando operation, took hostage a crewmember in an attempt to hijack an aircraft of Bangladesh Biman Airlines on Sunday.

More than one crewmember described the horrific moment during the attempt of hijack once they managed to flee the scene.

One crewmember said, around 4:30pm when the plane was flying at an altitude of 15,000 feet, suddenly a man from the passengers’ seat approached to the cockpit, and hit the crew brandishing a pistol and a bomb like object.

“The gunman then said I want to hijack the plane. I have a pistol and a bomb. If you do not open the cockpit, I’ll blow up the plane,” the crew said.

In the mean time, the crew added, other crewmembers sent a secret signal in symbolic language to the pilots in the cockpit about the hijack attempts.

The crewmember also said the plane was flying in a place in between Dhaka and Chattogram above 15,000 feet of the ground.

Meanwhile, pilot Md Shafi and co-pilot Md Jahangir closed the door of the airliner’s cockpit and sent a message of emergency landing tactfully to the Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram, he added.

Another crewmember, who was in the flight, said that the gunman was shouting at the pilots for opening the closed door of the cockpit.

At one stage, the gunman exploded something inside the plane, he said adding, the pilots landed the plane at the Chattogram airport. But, the hijacker held flight steward Sagor hostage, he continued.

The passengers got off from the plane through four emergency doors of the plane, the crewmember added.

According to Biman Bangladesh Airlines, 162-seated Mayurpankhi plane had 133 passengers in economy class and nine in business class except five crewmembers and two pilots.