Bangladesh mourns Kathmandu crash victims

Bangladesh yesterday observed a national day of mourning in memory of the 26 people killed in a US-Bangla Airplanes plane crash in Nepal.The Bangladeshi government said in a statement that its national flag would fly at half-mast at all public, semi-public, autonomous and private offices as well as in all Bangladesh diplomatic missions abroad, bdnews24.com reported.The aircraft with 71 people on board crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday.Fifty-one people were killed, including 26 Bangladeshis.Ten Bangladeshis were also injured in the accident, of whom three would continue to receive treatment in Kathmandu.Two of the injured will be transferred to India, four will be moved to Bangladesh, and one has arrived in Singapore for treatment, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry said in a statement cited by Efe news.“An injured passenger was taken to Singapore by an air ambulance last night,” US-Bangla Airlines spokesperson Kamrul Islam said, adding that the condition of the injured was critical.A majority of the victims suffered serious burns in the accident after the aircraft skidded off the runway, crashed and caught fire.Initial investigations indicated that a miscommunication between the control tower at Kathmandu Airport and the cockpit could have caused the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft to crash.The accident was the worst in the last 25 years in Nepal, which has repeatedly faced international sanctions for failing to adhere to safety standards in its aviation sector.The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from operating in its territory since 2013, citing poor safety standards.Flights suspendedBangladesh’s US-Bangla Airlines has suspended its flights to Nepal indefinitely, a spokesman said yesterday citing a shortage of aircraft, days after one of its planes crashed as it tried to land in the Nepali capital, killing 51 people.“We had to stop flight operations between Dhaka and Kathmandu due to a shortage of aircrafts,” airline spokesman Kamrul Islam told Reuters.He said flights on other domestic and international routes would operate as normal.The crash investigation might take a year to complete, said Air Vice Marshal Naim Hassan, chairman of the Bangladesh’s civil aviation regulatory agency.