Turkish Airlines fined BDT 3 lac for bringing passengers without covid certificate

Dhaka: A mobile court at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital fined Turkish Airlines BDT 3 lac for bringing three passengers without covid-negative certificates.

The three passengers returned to Bangladesh from USA with a stopover in Turkey on January 13, said Ahmed Jamil, a magistrate of the mobile court at HSIA.

The three USA-returnee Bangladeshis -- members of the same family -- are well-educated and one of them even works in the health department in the US, Jamil also said.

The three passengers were sent to institutional quarantine.

"It's so unfortunate that those who didn't bring Covid-19 negative certificates are very conscious and well-educated people.”

“They are not unaware of what's going on in US regarding the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic," said the magistrate.

Before leaving the United States, the three passengers went to a doctor who gave them certificate that they do not have any symptoms of Covid-19. But none of them underwent the test mandatory to come to Bangladesh.

Turkish Airlines knew that if they bring any passenger from Istanbul to Dhaka without having a test report, they would have to pay a fine after the flight reaches Dhaka.

They even offloaded ten passengers who wanted to go to Dhaka from Istanbul on January 14 because they did not have the Covid-19 negative certificate.

But the three passengers from the United States were able to reach Dhaka, due to mistake of persons responsible to carry out check-in duty.

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