Latest reports said a replacement engine for the troubled aircraft of the national flag carrier, stranded since Sunday night, was being flown from Amsterdam and engineers from Dhaka also started for Brussels last night.

The passengers including 13 infants, who were left in complete uncertainty at Brussels airport from 10 Sunday night to 10 Monday morning, were later lodged in expensive Marriott Hotel at Biman's expenses.

The national airlines' loss-making NY flight faced such troubles for the second time in four months.

In late September last year, a Biman flight on this route was forced to remain stranded at John F Kennedy Airport in New York for three days as the US Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA) stopped it from taking off without repairing at least 17 mechanical faults it had detected in the aircraft.

This time the Dhaka-Dubai-Brussels-NY flight rescheduled its departure thrice since Friday, took off from Zia International Airport Sunday morning and reached Brussels at night. But in the last leg of the flight to NY from the Belgian capital, the aircraft flew for one and a half hours and returned to Brussels airport due to serious engine faults.

"All efforts by aviation engineers of KLM and Belgian airlines Sabina to repair the faults and make the aeroplane operational failed yesterday afternoon. Now we are arranging for other European airlines to ferry the stranded passengers to New York. They include 21 in Business Class and 203 adults and 13 infants in Economy Class, " said senior Biman official in Dhaka last night.

Besides, under Biman's bilateral arrangement with KLM, a replacement engine was being sent to Brussels from Amsterdam while engineers from Dhaka started to catch first available flights to London to reach Brussels to make the DC-10 operative at the earliest.

The national flag carrier has earned the bad name of erratic schedule manager by operating flights to as many as 26 international and six domestic destinations with a dwindling fleet of only 13 aircraft -- five wide-bodied DC10-30s having 274 seats each, four mid-haul Airbus A-310-300s with 220 seats each and four F-28s having 80 seats each.

Hundreds of passengers suffer every day due to irregular flight schedules of Biman and in the worst cases, many of them have to wait overnight and also for days together to get a berth in the flights. And Biman pays fat bills for food and accommodation of the waiting passengers.

Official sources confirmed that more often than not Biman fails to operate its flights on schedule, particularly in international routes. Every day several flights are delayed by 6 to 24 hours, forcing the financially weak national airlines to pay at least $20 for each stranded passenger for food and lodging.

When contacted, Biman's acting Managing Director Mahmoodur Rahman admitted the flight disarray, attributing it to shortage of aircraft and ageing of the DC-10s.

Biman officials however could not explain why Biman is operating so many domestic and international flights at the expense of taxpayers' money. With only 13 aircraft in its fleet, Biman is still showing the luxury of operating Dhaka-New York flight twice a week, incurring a loss of Tk 70 lakh each week.

Mahmoodur Rahman said the national airlines had put forward a proposal to the government months ago for procuring 10 aircraft with no response as yet. Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman on several occasions stressed bringing management discipline in the overstaffed Biman first.

DC-10s are now used 12 hours a day on an average and Airbus A310-300s about 11 hours. Such high utilisation is impeding proper maintenance, resulting in frequent technical faults and flight disruptions and schedule irregularities, sources pointed out.