Biman Bangladesh Airlines is the national airline of Bangladesh. With a fleet of more than 10 aircraft it operates flights in Asia, but also to some destinations in Europe and the USA. Because of insufficient maintenance delays, cancellations and even accidents happen quite regularly.
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Biman Bangladesh Airlines - the word Biman means airplane in Bangla - was founded on January 4, 1972, and started operations one month later in a 30-year old Douglas DC-3, given to the airline by Bangladesh Air Force. When a Boeing 707 and a Fokker F27 were added, international flights started.
Later planes like Douglas DC-10, Airbus A310 and Fokker F28 and British Aerospace ATP joined the fleet.
The airline is entirely state-owned. However, 40 % of it are planned to be sold to a foreign airline taking over control over Biman.
The airline with two Skytrax stars has suffered many incidents because of insufficient maintenance of the over-aged fleet (19 years in average) and financial problems. In 2006, five planes, almost half of the fleet, could not be serviced anymore. This led to massive flight cancellations.
The latest accident happened on March 14, 2007, when the nose gear of an Airbus A310 carrying 236 people collapsed during takeoff from Dubai International Airport. 14 people suffered minor injuries.
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