Biman Dreamliner returns to Dhaka after take-off as cockpit windshield cracks

A crack in the cockpit windshield of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines Dreamliner has forced the pilot to bring the Boeing 787-9 plane back to Dhaka two hours after take-off.

The 285 passengers and 12 crew members of the flight, bound for Dammam in Saudi Arabia, are safe after the incident on Saturday afternoon, said Tahera Khondker, a spokesperson for the national carrier.

She said the flight’s captain Tania Reza contacted the control tower after noticing the crack and then decided to return to Shahjalal International Airport.

Air Commodore Moazzem Hossain, director of engineering and material management at Biman, said the windshield was not supposed to crack four years after the plane was added to Biman’s fleet.

“We’re contacting Boeing to identify if this was a manufacturing fault or caused by some other factor.”

Windshield cracks are not so common in aviation, but a Boeing 787 of Biman had earlier suffered such an incident, Moazzem said.

Windshield cracks can compromise an aircraft’s pressurisation system leading to a disaster.

A Boeing 737 of Biman was grounded in Malaysia after a crack in a cockpit window glass in February 2022.

The same problem in a Dreamliner forced the pilot to return a Doha-bound flight to Dhaka in August 2022.