"Our first priority now is to drag the aircraft at least 150 feet away from the runway and resume flights on international routes immediately as we have been counting thousands of dollars in losses due to the suspension of international flights since Friday," the minister told reporters yesterday afternoon.

Earlier, Mir Nasir inspected the aircraft that crash-landed and skidded off the runway, oversaw the salvage operations and spoke to high officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab).

Two Biman flights each with 221 passengers on board are scheduled to fly for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Muscat in Oman at 8:45pm and 10:45pm on Wednesday, Biman sources said yesterday.

Thai Airways yesterday cancelled their scheduled Bangkok-Chiangmai-Chittagong flights for tomorrow, said Weerawat Swasdibutra, the general manager. He requested the passengers to contact their office for further information.

The BG-048 flight of the national flag carrier flying from Dubai with 215 passengers aboard skidded off the runway after it was forced to make a belly-landing "due to technical faults".

Meanwhile, the lightening of the damaged aircraft including de-fuelling and removal of the two engines were completed yesterday afternoon. Engineers and staffs of Biman and Caab removed all seats and other instruments to enable easy dragging of the aircraft off the runway.

The army yesterday erected a makeshift brick platform through which the aircraft will be dragged 150-feet away from the runway. Director (Flight Safety) Habibullah Khan, also the head of the five-member committee formed to investigate the accident, yesterday said the probe committee was still gathering information and would submit a report "as early as possible".