DACCA: Six persons were killed, six injured, when a PIA Fokker Friendship plane with 30 passengers and a crew of five on board crashed at Shamshernagar airstrip in Sylhet district this morning [Dec 31]. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from Sylhet to Dacca.

The aircraft while approaching Shamsher­nagar airstrip for a scheduled landing, came steeply down, tilted right and hit the ground about a furlong from the runway’s ‘touch down’ point. It then swerved right in a semicircle, ploughing through nearby bushes and came to a halt and caught fire. The right propeller ... according to eye witnesses, hit the ground first and separated from the body and was burnt.

Those killed included one infant and his parents. … [and] Mr. Mahfuzul Hossain, Adviser to East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation and top fertiliser expert. — Correspondent

[Meanwhile, as reported by an agency in Teheran] Seventy people were feared dead and 130 others injured when a goods and passenger trains were in collision in central Iran ... it was reported here today [Dec 31]. The newspaper “Kayhan” reported that 50 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. But the authorities here said … 15 people had been killed. Experts have been sent ... to investigate the accident, which occurred between Isfahan and Yazd.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2021