On 5 August 1984, a

Biman Bangladesh Airlines Biman Bangladesh Airlines ( bn, বিমান বাংলাদেশ এয়ারলাইন্স) commonly known as Biman ( bn, বিমান), pronounced (), is the national flag carrier of Bangladesh. With its main hub at Hazra ...

Fokker F27-600 The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

crashed into a marsh near

Zia International Airport Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport ( bn, হযরত শাহ্‌জালাল আন্তর্জাতিক বিমানবন্দর, Romanization of Bengali, Romanized: ''Hôzrôt Shahjalal Antôrjatik Bimanbôndôr' ...

(now

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport ( bn, হযরত শাহ্‌জালাল আন্তর্জাতিক বিমানবন্দর, Romanized: ''Hôzrôt Shahjalal Antôrjatik Bimanbôndôr'') ( formerly VGZR) is th ...

) in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

while landing in poor weather. The aircraft was performing a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Patenga Airport,

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

and Zia International Airport, Dhaka. With a total death toll of 49 people, it is the deadliest aviation disaster to occur on Bangladeshi soil and also the airline's worst accident.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft, a

registered S2-ABJ, was manufactured in 1971. It first flew for

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after mer ...

but it was given to Biman in 1972, as a part of all the support given to Bangladesh by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

following Bangladesh's Independence. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had flown more than 24,000 cycles and more than 15,500 airframe hours. The captain of the flight was Kayes Ahmed Majumdar, an experienced pilot who had logged 5,000 flying hours. The first officer was

Kaniz Fatema Roksana Kaniz Fatema Roksana was the first Bangladeshi woman commercial pilot. She died on 5 August 1984 in a plane crash in a marsh near Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as ...

, who was the first female commercial pilot of Bangladesh.

Accident

The weather conditions in Dhaka were poor on the day of the accident; there was turbulence and heavy rain made visibility very poor. Amid these conditions, the crew first attempted a

VOR VOR or vor may refer to: Organizations * Vale of Rheidol Railway in Wales * Voice of Russia, a radio broadcaster * Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race Science, technology and medicine * VHF omnidirectional range, a radio navigation aid used in a ...

approach to

's runway 32. As the runway was not spotted by either crew member, a

missed approach Missed approach is a procedure followed by a pilot when an instrument approach cannot be completed to a full-stop landing. The instructions for the missed approach may be assigned by air traffic control (ATC) prior to the clearance for the approac ...

was executed. The crew then tried an ILS approach on runway 14 of the same airport, but a missed approach had to be executed again as both pilots had failed to spot the runway once again. On the crew's third approach (second on runway 14), the plane got too low while it was still several hundred meters from the runway but neither crew member realized this (due to the poor visibility) and the plane crashed into a swamp about 550 meters short of the runway.

Passengers

There were a total of 45 passengers and 4 crew members on board the flight, all of whom perished in the crash. There was one British and one Japanese among the passengers, and the rest were Bangladeshi. Thirty-three of the passengers were traveling to Dhaka to catch connecting flights to the Middle East.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 crash Aviation accidents and incidents in Bangladesh Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather Aviation accidents and incidents in 1984 Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker F27 1984 in Bangladesh Biman Bangladesh Airlines August 1984 events in Asia 1984 disasters in Bangladesh Biman Bangladesh Airlines accidents and incidents