A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft carrying at least 174 Bangladeshi nationals left Rome’s Fiumicino International Airport for Bangladesh after being grounded there on Friday due to a technical glitch.

The flight departed Rome for Dhaka at 9:00pm (11:00pm Rome local time) and is expected to arrive in Dhaka at 12:24pm Bangladesh time today, Bushra Islam, general manager of public relations at Biman, said in a release.

A separate press release earlier said a Biman engineering team, which arrived in Rome with the necessary spare parts and equipment, carried out technical work on the aircraft, which had been in an AOG (Aircraft on Ground) condition.

According to the latest information, the aircraft’s technical fault has been successfully resolved and it has been declared serviceable.

The Toronto-Rome-Dhaka flight BG306, carrying 259 passengers, landed at Fiumicino on Friday morning for a scheduled refuelling stop when the technical fault was detected.

According to passengers, those holding Canadian, US or other foreign passports or relevant visas were allowed to clear Italian immigration and were accommodated in hotels, while 174 Bangladeshi passport holders were unable to enter Italy and had to remain inside the airport.

Contacted by The Daily Star earlier, Bushra Islam said the airline had been unable to arrange hotel accommodation for the stranded passengers because they could not clear immigration.

“We have managed to provide hotel accommodation to those who have foreign passports, but not to those who were travelling with Bangladeshi passports,” she said.