DUBAI, 13 March 2007 — Twenty-seven people were injured yesterday when a Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane was forced to abort its takeoff at Dubai International Airport, prompting the closure of the airport for over seven hours.
The Biman Flight 006, which had 236 people on board including crew members, was about to take off from the bustling Gulf emirate to Dhaka when the accident occurred, the Dubai Civil Aviation Department said.
“There was a failure to take off and then the nose of the plane hit the ground,” spokeswoman Shamma Lootah said.
Most of the injured were hurt “in the panic that erupted when the accident occurred,” she said, adding that most of the passengers were Bangladeshis.
Pictures showed the stricken Airbus A310 airliner with both engines on the tarmac, and black skid marks on the runway.
The airport reopened at 2 p.m., Dubai Civil Aviation Department spokesman Huraiz bin Huraiz told Arab News, seven and a half hours after it was forced to close.
In all, 35 flights were diverted to nearby airports and 36 were canceled or rescheduled, said Ghassan Amhaz, another civil aviation spokesman.
Civil aviation authorities advised passengers to check with their airlines for the status of their flights after the reopening of the airport.
They said in a statement that 26 of the injured were treated at the airport’s medical center and discharged within an hour, while one woman passenger was taken to hospital and later discharged.
The department of civil aviation said the accident was being investigated in coordination with the General Civil Aviation Authority, which oversees the aviation sector in the United Arab Emirates.
“We were told that the flight was canceled and to go to the ticket desk to rebook. But there are no seats today or tomorrow. We have nowhere to go. They said hotels are all full,” said British tourist Rachel Blackwell, 29.
Natalie Hamadeh who was catching an Emirates flight to Jordan around 2 p.m. had her flight postponed to 6 p.m. “It’s a good thing that I heard of the incident over the radio and called my airline. I hope that they don’t cancel this flight too,” she said.
The scene at the busy airport was chaotic in the early afternoon with hundreds of passengers waiting for details about the change of their flights. Some of them were angry and upset over the fact that they would wait for hours before finding alternative flights.
“I am happy that nobody was seriously injured as a result of the accident but I cannot believe that such a small accident could close an airport of this size,” said Ramesh Kumar, a passenger who was supposed to fly out to India.
— With input from agencies
