Staff Correspondent

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has formed a four-member committee to investigate the technical glitch that delayed the flight carrying Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his entourage from Tokyo to Dhaka by nearly five hours on Thursday.

The chief (Planning and Scheduling) will lead the committee, while the chief engineer (Engineering Production) and the deputy chief (Flight Safety) of Biman have been made members, according to an office order issued by the national flag carrier on Friday.

The manager (Legal Affairs) will serve as the member secretary, it said, adding that the committee may co-opt any Biman official as a member, if necessary.

According to the office order, the committee will investigate the actual cause and nature of the technical problem that occurred before the Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight BG-377 was scheduled to take off from Narita International Airport,

It will review the technical and operational measures taken to identify and resolve the problem and ensure the aircraft's airworthiness before its subsequent departure.

The panel will also assess the impact of the incident, including the flight delay, additional operational costs, inconvenience caused to passengers and its impact on the institutional image of the national flag carrier.

It will examine the duties and responsibilities of the persons concerned and determine whether there was any negligence, lack of coordination or procedural lapse at any stage, and fix responsibility if any such failure is found.

The probe panel also make recommendations to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future.

The committee has been asked to submit its report to the Biman managing director and chief executive officer within four working days.

The Biman flight was scheduled to depart from the Tokyo airport at 6pm local time on Thursday.

However, it took off at 10:55pm after a delay by nearly five hours due to the technical glitch, which Biman's engineering team and Japanese technicians fixed.

The flight carrying Tarique Rahman, his wife Dr Zubaida Rahman and other members of his entourage landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 2:48am on Friday.