United Airways engine disappears from HSIA

A valuable engine of an abandoned aircraft of the United Airways has reportedly gone missing from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport despite the stringent security measures.

Airport authorities were dumbfounded to learn about the engine stolen incident which occurred in a very sensitive and highly secured area of the airport.

It is noted that a total of 21 security agencies are responsible for ensuring the overall security of the country’s premier international airport.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh has collected close circuit camera footage from multiple areas in the export cargo village and also from all other entry-exit points of the airport to trace how the United Airways engine was stolen amidst tight security.

The regulator of the airport, however, could not trace any clue about the engine stolen incident as yet even after viewing the collected footage.

In this regard, HSIA’s executive director group captain AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan sent a letter to the CAAB chairman on August, 12, in which he said, “As airliners are totally responsible for ensuring the security of their respective aircraft while staying at the airport, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the airport authorities to ensure security for all the aircrafts as per civil aviation security program-2018.”

“As per field report, the said engine of the United Airways was not found with the dash-8 (S2-IS) aircraft (Model number AC 0035),” said the letter.

“When asked, United Airways authorities could not even give us any information about the current location of the engine to HSIA.”

In reply to a question, CAAB chairman air vice marshal M Mafidur Rahman told The Business Post that he was not well-aware about what happened to the engine as the United Airways has not informed the CAAB anything about the engine missing or lost.

In February 2016, United Airways, the first private airline listed with the stock exchange abruptly suspended its flight operations without any prior announcement and simultaneously dumped all of its aircrafts on the cargo village runway of HSIA.

The airline had earlier begun its operation on July 10, 2006, after receiving approval from the CAAB in 2005.

Apart from eight aircrafts from United Airways, there are two more aircraft from Regent Airways while one each from GMG and Avina airlines parked at Dhaka airport for quite a long time.

All these planes have been occupying a large part of the cargo village at HSIA for years, disrupting the loading and unloading operations of goods

Though CAAB had earlier decided to confiscate and auction off 12 airplanes parked at Dhaka airport, the authorities concern is yet to take any such move as yet.

They will be sold over the failure of their owning companies to ensure proper registration and repayment of loans, said CAAB officials.

United, Regent, and GMG collectively owe some Tk 850 crore to CAAB in different unpaid charges.

Of the total sum, United Airlines alone owes Tk 203.6, GMG Tk 368.29 crore and Regent Tk 283.38 crore. Besides, United Airways owes more than Tk 600 crore to the bank while another aircraft remained abandoned at Swami Vivekananda Airport at Raipur in India.

Meanwhile, CAAB has also formed a four-member committee, led by HSIA executive director AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, to finalise the process through which the abandoned aircraft will be confiscated and then sold.

But on the other hand, newly appointed chairman of the United Airways Kazi Wahidul Alam has requested the CAAB to reach a consensus from both sides through discussions over the matter.

On July 14, in a letter to the CAAB, Wahidul Alam said: “Since we have taken over the charge of the company just six months ago, we have no idea about the aircraft.”

Earlier in February, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) took an initiative to revive the operation of the airliner.

As part of this move, BSEC reorganised the board of directors headed by Kazi Wahidul Alam, an aviation expert and editor of the Bangladesh Monitor, aviation and tourism based weekly magazine.

In its letter to the CAAB, United Airways Company wanted to allow its officials and its technical teams to visit their aircraft for technical audits and to take the next course.

While talking to The Business Post recently, Kazi Wahidul Alam said, “As an estimated 50 per cent of the aircraft is okay, we are hoping to repair the rest of the aircraft, so that we can relocate our aircraft soon after getting an audit by a technical expert team. But, we are facing delay to do so due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic.’’

‘Bank loans and CAAB dues will be paid through negotiations as we do hope that United Airways will fly on the sky soon,’’ he also added.

Tasbirul Alam Chowdhury was removed as the head of the board of directors of United Airways. Though the company was listed with the BSEC in 2010, its transaction is now totally closed.