 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
Escapist Biman?
Due to previous records of consistent
violations and not rectifying them despite being issued notices,
yesterday (05/14/2006) Federal Aviation Authority in
USA didn't permit Biman Bangladesh Airlines to land in New
York JFK Airport. As a result, Biman had to change it route and 257
passengers including many elderly & sick men, women; newly arrived
immigrants; children were left with no other choice but to spend the
night in Montreal, Canada. Now most of these passengers will be coming
to USA by bus, train and flights. What's worse, Biman personnel in
New York JFK Airport couldn't provide any reliable information about the
fate of those passengers stuck in Montreal, when relatives and friends
called Biman office at JFK last night and whole day today. As of
9-12 pm today, they couldn't even provide any list of the passengers who
will be now coming to USA in different routes. My cousin Manjur Alom
Badol who was accompanying my older cousin's newly immigrant family to
the US, said to me amid shivering fever and headache when he called me
from Montreal, "now for each of our six luggages for which we already
paid tax and weight charges, we've to pay additional Canadian $ 50.00 to
get them on New York flight." This is nothing new in Biman's
history. Just a few days ago, similar incident happened in Brussels to
the passengers headed for New York. Many passengers at that time were
forced to travel to Paris by road and make their own arrangements of
flights to USA.
"It's the remittance from money
sent by the expatriates Bangladeshis that keeps country's economy in
motion." We hear it repeatedly from country's ministers and politicians.
But what reward they're rendering to these expatriates with the kind of
hardship expatriate passengers are experiencing with Biman; that too
days after days? In the recent incident, why couldn't Biman first check
out the permit to land in USA before it took off flight from Dhaka?
Who's to blame for this? Those elderly and sick passengers? Innocent
children, women? Most surprising among all is when passengers without
any clues were looking for some Biman personnel to find answers to their
questions; they discovered-- Biman along with its crews has disappeared
from Montreal. What a cowardly escape! Questions is: how long more will
Biman be able to escape given its high level of corruption, deteriorated
customer service and a hell like mismanagement?
New York
05/15/2006
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
||
|
|
||||
|
|
 |
 |
 |