Five aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines were damaged, three of them badly, at Zia International Airport (ZIA) when a nor'wester came lashing Tuesday night.

A F-28 aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines rammed into an Airbus, damaging its wing at Zia International Airport Tuesday night during the storm..photo: Sk Enamul Haq

The storm with a wind speed of up to 111-km per hour, the strongest in the last three years, damaged three Airbuses, a Boeing and a Fokker aircraft.

Biman's flight capacity has been hit hard as almost one-third of its 17-plane fleet has gone grounded.

A three-member committee headed by Md Sirajul Islam, joint secretary of the civil aviation ministry, has been formed to probe the incident.

Two Airbuses and an F-28 aircraft parked just outside the hanger at ZIA suffered heavy damages and it might take a week or more to make them airworthy, official sources said.

A newly introduced Boeing 737, parked at the domestic terminal, and another Airbus, anchored to a boarding bridge, were slightly dam aged during the storm Tuesday night.

Biman and civil aviation sources said the light F-28, parked between two Airbuses, was lifted at least six feet above the ground by the wind fury. It snapped the rope that secured the aircraft and hit the belly of an Airbus with its nose. Its tail lashed the wings and engine of another Airbus.

The Airbus, parked at the boarding bridge, and the Boeing at the domestic terminal sustained minor damages.

Biman has six DC-10s, four Airbuses, three F-28s, two Boeing 737s and two ATPs.

The ATPs after lying inoperative for over three and a half years, were put into service just yesterday.

Biman officials said flights will need to be rescheduled. The airlines has already cancelled the Dhaka-Bangkok- Singapore and Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur flights on Wednesday.

Civil aviation sources claimed that safety preparations were taken before the storm came, but the wind speed beat any anticipation, causing the havoc. The metoffice forecast a wind speed of 60km, almost half the actual 111km speed.

Met office sources said an 'aviation warning' was sent to the civil aviation control tower, cautioning against flight operations from 7:00pm to 10:00pm Tuesday.

"The sustained wind speed of the storm was forecast to be 60-plus-km, but it eventually gained a wind speed of up to 111km," a meteorologist told The Daily Star yesterday.

Biman authorities did not indicate the amount of loss and said the damaged aircraft would not be removed from the places of occurrence before being inspected and assessed by the leasing company of Singapore and the insurance company, Lloyds, of the UK.

Sources said the leasing and inspection company officials are expected to arrive here today.