Over 250 Biman passengers stranded at Rome for 30 hours

Passengers of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight bound for Dhaka from Toronto, Canada, and Rome have been stranded at Rome's Fiumicino Airport for almost 30 hours due to a technical fault. Biman has said an engineering team and necessary spare parts are being sent from Bangladesh to fix the issue.

On Friday, August 7, during regular refuelling at around 7:20am local time, a technical fault was detected in the aircraft. The flight remained grounded until Saturday afternoon, August 8.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines said the aircraft is currently unfit for takeoff due to the fault. An engineering team and necessary spare parts are being sent from Bangladesh to Rome to resolve the technical issue. The 'August' flight carrying these is scheduled to arrive in Rome at 6:50pm local time.

According to Biman's plan, if the technical fault is resolved quickly, the flight may depart from Rome for Dhaka at 10pm local time on Saturday. In that case, it is expected to arrive in Dhaka around 10:30am on Sunday, August 9.

According to this schedule, passengers may have to wait at Rome airport for approximately 40 hours. A total of 260 passengers are on the flight, including Bangladeshi, Italian and Canadian nationals. Bangladesh national football team midfielder Syed Kazem Shah has also been stranded in Rome, Italy, due to flight complications.

The flight had a scheduled stopover in Italy for refuelling on Friday while en route from Toronto to Dhaka. However, due to the technical fault detected during refuelling, the aircraft could not depart for Dhaka as scheduled.