Bangladesh News

The probe committee investigating the cause behind the two-hour blackout in Zia International Airport (ZIA) on Sunday is yet to throw light on the matter.

Meanwhile the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry yesterday formed another probe committee in addition to the probe committee formed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).

Both the committees have been asked to submit reports within the next two days.

The unprecedented incident at ZIA brought the international airport to a virtual standstill on Sunday night, besides raising serious questions about security at the airport.

The power failure was followed by a failure to operate the two power generators, only one of which was started some 30 minutes after the blackout.

“We have worked the whole day but are yet to come to a conclusion in this regard,” Abdur Rafiq Dewan, head of the probe committee, formed by Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), told The Daily Star last night.

He however said that the probe committee had come across some primary reasons that may have caused the power outage but declined to give any further details on the continuing investigation.

Mahbub Jamil, special assistant to the chief adviser who is in charge of civil aviation and industry ministry, yesterday spent almost the whole day at ZIA and Balaka, head office of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd.

He held talks with different officials on the matter.

Sources at the airport say that the power supply to ZIA snapped due to a power trip in the circuit breaker of the ZIA feeder lines.

There are about 10 to 13 feeder lines and 13-power sub-stations in ZIA through which power is distributed in this area.

CAAB chairman Air Commodore Sakeb Khan Majlish had initially said on Sunday night that the outage occurred due to a power failure in a grid of the power supply authority.

Desco provides power supply to ZIA.