Staff Reporter

The 28 crew members of Bangladeshi vessel ‘Banglar Samriddhi’, which came under a missile attack at a Ukrainian port on March 2, will return home today.

A flight of Turkish Airlines carrying the crew was scheduled to depart from Romanian capital Bucharest around 10:00pm on Tuesday, said General Manager (Chartering and Planning) of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) Md Mujibur Rahman.

“They (the Bangladeshi sailors) will reach Dhaka today afternoon after a transit in Turkey,” Mujibur Rahman told the Daily Sun quoting the captain of the ship.
“Two of our general managers will receive them at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport,” he added.

The crew reached the Romanian capital by road from the war-torn Ukraine on Sunday and were staying at a hotel under the supervision of Bangladesh Embassy there.

Earlier, they had been taken to a safe place after their evacuation from the damaged Bangladeshi vessel on March 3.

The bridge of the ship was completely damaged in a missile attack on the previous day.

The ship ‘Banglar Samriddhi’ had been staying at the inner anchorage of Olvia port of Ukraine since February 21. A missile hit the bridge of the bulk-carrier around 9:30 (Bangladesh time) on March 2.

The attack left vessel’s third engineer Hadisur Rahman, hailing from Betagi upazila in Barguna district, dead on the spot. However, other crew members survived the attack unhurt.
Specialised seaport Olvia is a medium-sized port located in Mykolaiv region on the left bank of the Dnieper-Bug estuary on the northern Black Sea coast.

The chartered bulk-carrier owned by the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) reached the port from Turkey and anchored in the anchorage area.

The vessel got stranded in the Ukraine port after the war started. The port operation was also suspended on February 24 due to the volatile situation.

The ship was supposed to load ‘ball clay’ from the port and leave for Italy within five days.

The body of the ill-fated third engineer Hadisur Rahman has been kept at a hospital in Ukraine. Process is underway to send the body to the country.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers’ Association alleged that the BSC had not taken the right decision to send the vessel to Ukraine as the country was already in grip of tensions over a possible war.