Flight from Dhaka, 19 hours late

Kolkata: What should have ideally been aunremarkable 50-minute flight, from Dhaka to Kolkata on Sunday evening, turned into a nightmare for 108 passengers booked on Biman Bangladesh as takeoff was delayed by nearly 19 hours, twice the time it takes to travel between the two cities by road.
The passengers' ordeal began on Sunday afternoon when they left hotels and homes in Dhaka city
for the Shahjalal Interantional Airport. Ekram Kalam started for the airport around 2.30pm Dhaka time (2pm Indian Standard time) for flight BG 0095 scheduled for takeoff at 6.10pm and reached the airport at 3-3.30pm.
"Since one has to report three hours prior to an international flight's departure, most passengers had reached the airport by 3.30pm.
It was only on reaching the airport that everyone learnt about the flight delay," recounted Kalam.
At the check-in desk, Biman Bangladesh ground staff told passengers that the flight would takeoff at 9pm but no reason was cited for the delay, passengers assumed that it was either a technical snag or poor weather that had led to the flight's rescheduling.
20/12/11 Times of India

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Categories: airports Dec 2011, Foreign Dec 2011