I experienced disaster first-hand when Bangladesh and its Army lost 15 peacekeepers in a plane crash at Cotonou International Airport in Benin on 25 December 2003. How the 15 happened to be on that ill-fated flight is a matter of a chain of events guided by unity and friendship which I will narrate here with a sadness in my heart.
Initially, as per leave plans, 18 officers were supposed to go on leave during the second leave cycle (from 15 November 2003) and another 14 during the third leave cycle (from 15 January 2004). Everybody had taken their leave during the second cycle except for five officers (Maj. Baten, Maj. Rahim, Capt. Arif, Capt. Zahid, Capt. Mabud) and one junior commissioned officer (Senior Warrant Officer Shafiq). They had hoped to avail of the upcoming rotation flight due for BANSEC HQ-3 and 4. This rotation flight was initially set to leave on 15 December, but was later rescheduled for 22 December. Six other officers from the next group—Lt. Col. Arefin, Maj. Mustafiz, Capt. Farid, Capt. Alauddin, Capt. Rakib and Capt. Rafiq—requested to go on leave earlier than their planned schedule.
All the officers reached Lungi International Airport on 21 December. The next day, the pilot of the UN-chartered aircraft refused to board them because their names were not on the passengers' list. After a lot of discussions, the pilot agreed to board only 12 of the 34 passengers from BANCON, which included officers from BANBATT-9 and BANMED-3 (UNAMSIL, Sierra Leone), BANBATT-1 (UNMIL, Liberia) and Force HQ of UNMIL. Of the 12, only 4 from BANBATT-9 were allowed to board.
Our officers then decided that, on principle, only the junior commissioned officer (Officer Shafiq) and the junior-most officer (Captain Mabud) should go, and the other two should be selected by lottery. However, Captain Mabud and Officer Shafiq refused to leave without the rest of the group. At that point, everyone from BANBATT-9 collectively decided not to go. They informed their families about the unexpected delay and cancelled their one-way return tickets. The aircraft took off at 1210 hours and safely arrived at Dhaka. Major Mosharref, who had a different route, also cancelled his ticket and joined the group to fly in the same aircraft.
Six officers from BANBATT-1 flew from Monrovia to go on the rotation flight, but once the collective decision was made that none of the BANCON members would take that flight, they went back to Liberia disheartened. However, Maj. Rownak and Maj. Imtiaz, who both felt an urgency to go to Bangladesh, stayed in Lungi with the BANBATT-9 officers, bringing the total number of soldiers to 15.
On 24 December, I was informed that the officers had changed their plans and were finally flying the next day. I talked and bid farewell to everyone on the phone that night and that was the last time I spoke to them. UTA-141 took off from Lungi International Airport at 0930 hours on that fateful morning. That evening, I heard on the television news that a plane had crashed at 1355 hours at Cotonou International Airport while taking off for Beirut. It had originated from Conakry and was bound for Lungi to Cotonou, then Beirut and finally Dubai. It was also announced that 99 per cent of the passengers were from Lebanon. I quickly checked the UTA-141 route and found it to be different:
Lungi-Conakry-Cotonou-Beirut-Dubai.
The next day, the PAK Aviation Commanding Officer called to inform me that all our officers on board UTA-141 had embraced "Shahadad" (martyrdom in Arabic). The news left me stunned. I immediately broke the news to my colleagues. We informed Brigadier Sina-Ibne Jamali, Director of Military Operations, AHQ at Dhaka at 1600 hours (1000 hours Bangladesh local time). In fact, we had known about the crash 26 hours after it had occurred, and the Bangladesh Army found out about it for the first time from us.
We learned from the Internet that 161 persons were on that flight, including 10 crew members—119 bodies had been recovered, 20 were missing and 22 had survived. From 0400 hours local time, we started getting calls from relatives, inquiring about their loved ones. We intentionally kept the facts from them to give them a glimmer of hope at a time of despair, telling them we were trying to determine whether our officers were in fact there and that we would get back to them as soon as we heard something.
We decided to hold funeral prayers the next day (27 December) and as the Adjutant of the battalion, I narrated the details of the fateful event but avoided the word "dead"; rather I said, "Our officers are missing and we are here to pray for their well-being". A team led by our Contingent Commander, Colonel Md Fazlul Haque, flew to Cotonou to identify the bodies, or body parts to be explicit. The following day, all 15 soldiers were identified. I have no words to express my sympathy and feelings, as I have lost most of my respected seniors, beloved course mates (six of them) and dearest juniors. |
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