In the face of the student uprising, the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on August 5 in an Air Force plane. However, it was flown as a training flight to hide the flight information. At the same time, the aircraft’s transponder was turned off so that others do not know the flight path and location. It remained closed until it approached Indian airspace in West Bengal.
As a result, the transponder used to report the aircraft’s position, name, altitude, speed and automatic geolocator system was shut down, causing confusion about the aircraft’s destination on the airline’s online tracking website.
A copy of the progress strip of Flight AJAX1431 from Air Traffic Control (ATC) has already reached the media. A flight progress strip is a small card that ATC uses to track specific aircraft in the sky so that it does not collide with another aircraft. It also contains a recording of a radio communication between the cockpit of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft and Dhaka’s ATC.
According to the flight progress strip, the aircraft carrying Hasina took off from Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Airbase west of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on August 5 at 3:90 pm.
According to the screen grab of the radar screen at Dhaka airport, the aircraft carrying Hasina activated the transponder and automatic geolocator system after reaching waypoint ‘BEMAK’ on the Dhaka-Kolkata route. Since then, it has been visible on radar. The flight first took off towards Kolkata. It then proceeded to Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad, 30 km from the Indian capital.
Aviation experts said that the reason why the aircraft first went to Kolkata instead of going directly to Delhi was because it wanted to spend as little time as possible in Bangladesh airspace. Flights from Dhaka to Delhi fly over Rajshahi and this route requires a few minutes more time in Bangladeshi airspace than the Dhaka to Kolkata route.
According to the flight progress strip, the country’s authorities were notified that the aircraft was entering Indian airspace. The flight carrying Hasina was given squawk code 4131. ATC identifies each aircraft flying in its airspace with a four-digit code. The crew manually enters this code into the aircraft’s transponder before takeoff.
A screen grab from Dhaka ATC’s radar monitor shows Flight AJAX1431 turning on its transponder shortly before entering Indian airspace. When a flight plan is approved, its squawk code is sent to the destination ATC. In case of aircraft carrying Hasina, this code is sent to Kolkata.
Civil Aviation Authority sources said there is a direct hotline between ATC in Dhaka and Kolkata to inform each other about approaching aircraft. Although the aircraft was not seen on secondary radar, the cockpit crew was in constant communication with the traffic controller at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and possibly the air traffic controller at Kolkata.
Recordings of radio communications between the C-130 and ground controllers in Dhaka revealed that Flight AJAX1431 chose taxiway South Alpha to approach Runway 32 from Bangabandhu Airbase. Ground controllers alerted the aircraft that two Antonov AN-32s were there and to take precautions. ATC asks the aircraft to fly at an initial altitude of 20,000 feet.
The flight path of AJAX1431 on August 5 can be seen at flightradar24.com. After AJAX1431 crossed four thousand feet, the pilot contacted the Dhaka Area Control Center. “Dhaka Control AJX 1431 is going past 110 (11,000 feet) to 200 (20,000 feet) and we’re only 15 miles away from turning left,” said the pilot.
The controller in Dhaka approved it. The crew finally asked permission for 24,000 feet and Dhaka ATC gave it. ATC then alerted the cockpit crew about the traffic, informing them that an Airbus A320 was heading towards Dhaka. It said the Airbus was above them and descending 26,000 feet.
Then Dhaka ATC said, ‘AJX 1431 Contact Kolkata Control.’ Which means, from then on the crew will have to contact Kolkata ATC and announce their arrival. According to sources, usually this announcement is made when the flight reaches near the border.
Air Commodore AFM Atikuzzaman, Member (Management and Planning) of the Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority, who was on duty at the ATC tower when the plane carrying Sheikh Hasina took off, told a leading English daily of the country, ‘I had no idea who was on that flight. I was on normal duty in the tower at that time. I knew that an Air Force training flight was flying. I did not know anything about who was inside.’
After crossing the border, Hasina’s plane was escorted by two Dassault Rafale fighter jets of the 101 Squadron at Hashimara airbase in West Bengal, an India Today report said. The fighter jets were waiting for two C-130s.
