DHAKA, Oct 8: At least 30 people were injured when an F-28 aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines skidded off the runway after landing at the MAG Osmani International Airport in Sylhet amid inclement weather on Friday morning.

Airport officials said BG 601 carrying 79 passengers ran off the runway just after touching down at 9:15am and nosedived into a ditch, trapping the pilot and a passenger inside the cockpit.

The accident led to panic among international and domestic passengers at the airport. The pilot of the aircraft, Shahana Akhtar, and Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, a former adviser to the non-party caretaker government, were in the cockpit when the accident occurred, airport manager Siddiqur Rahman told reporters in Sylhet.

Immediately after the accident, the fire service department of the airport and members of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh and the police began a rescue operation.

The pilot was rescued by cutting the cockpit open three and a half hours after the accident, Biman officials said. They added that it took around six and a half hours to rescue Muyeed.