A Nepal-bound flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines returned to Dhaka soon after it took off last morning as the runway of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu has been shut down following a “runway excursion” of an aircraft during landing.
The flight returned to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) as it was not notified about the suspension of the flight operation at Kathmandu airport, said Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager (public relations) at Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
The time the news came in, the pilot was still within the Bangladesh territory, she added.
The flight has been rescheduled to 9am today, said the Biman official.
Two people sustained injuries as a flight of Yeti Airlines (ATR 72-500), skidded about 15 metres into the grass of the only international airport of the Himalayan nation from southern Nepal with 66 passengers, according to AFP report.
Removing the Franco-Italian-made turboprop plane was taking a long time because heavy rain has made the area muddy.
Authorities took 11 hours to remove a domestic aircraft that suffered a similar runway excursion in September last year, months after a Malaysian jet with 139 people on board had aborted its takeoff and skidded off the runway.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airways plane crashed near the airport, killing 51 people.
The Himalayan nation has some of the world's most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots.
