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Probe body over Dhaka airport security lapse

FE Report | March 07, 2019 00:00:00


A piece of baggage containing a revolver of a domestic passenger of a Dhaka-Chattogram flight passed through a scanner at the Dhaka airport undetected on Tuesday afternoon, raising question about the security system.

Following the incident, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) suspended a security staffer and formed a three-member probe committee on Wednesday.

The incident took place only 10 days after an attempted hijack of an aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in which the suspected hijacker was killed.

The baggage belongs to Ilias Kanchan, a film actor and chairman of the Nirapad Sarak Chai, a road safety movement, who was passing through the domestic terminal at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to board a Novoair flight bound for Chattogram at 1:00pm on Tuesday.

Mr Ilias claimed to have carried his licensed 9mm pistol unintentionally which he forgot to declare before entering the security point at the airport.

However, he declared to the security personnel that he had a pistol with him before the second check as he then remembered carrying it, he said.

On the other hand, the CAAB claimed that Ilias Kanchan had declared that he had a firearm only when he was detected carrying the undeclared pistol.

Talking to the FE, Ilias Kanchan said the licensed revolver was in his laptop bag which he put it in the first scanning machine. He later lifted the bag without any objection after undergoing the body check and then approached the second security checkpoint.

"I saw very good security checking, as everyone was taking off their shoes and belts and putting their moneybags to the machine. I also put my laptop bag on the conveyer belt for scanning," Mr Ilias explained.

"I suddenly remembered that a revolver was in the bag while it was slowly moving towards the scanning machine. I then informed security personnel of it. Then they took the laptop bag out and found it. I also informed the airlines counter and completed the formalities," he said.

Mr Ilias also said that he even expressed his dissatisfaction over the failure of the security check and the scanning machine to detect the revolver in his laptop bag at first.

When contacted, CAAB member (Security) Shah Md Imdadul Haque told the FE that Ilias Kanchan did not behave like a responsible citizen by not declaring beforehand that he had a firearm with him.

"He was compelled to declare the arms only when it was detected during the second scanning," claimed Mr Imdad.

Regarding the suspension of a security staffer, he said CAAB has suspended the staff member due to the failure to detect the revolver during the first scanning.

The probe committee is now working to find who are responsible for such a security lapse, he added.

"We are now screening all the video footages to see whose fault was this," said Mr Imdad.

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