Call for RAJUK-CAAB cell to oversee airport safety
The recommendation came in the commission's investigation into the Milestone School and College aircraft crash, which killed 36 people, most of them children
ATT Desk Report 
A high-level investigation commission has recommended constituting a joint RAJUK-Civil Aviation cell to oversee structures around airports after finding serious failures in controlling land use and development around Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).
The recommendation came in the commission's investigation into the Milestone School and College aircraft crash, which killed 36 people, most of them children.
While human error was identified as the principal cause of the crash, the commission raised broader aviation safety concerns over schools, hospitals, commercial establishments and other crowded facilities located beneath or close to airport flight paths.
It particularly questioned Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha's (RAJUK) failure to prevent unplanned development around HSIA despite aviation safety restrictions.
"The airport was surrounded by the locality," commission member and urban planner Adil Muhammad Khan said, underscoring how uncontrolled urbanisation had gradually encroached on the airport environment.
The commission found that large parts of the airport's approach area had previously been designated as flood-flow zones, agricultural land and water-retention areas, but RAJUK had effectively failed to control subsequent land use.
More significantly, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) had informed RAJUK several times about 630 buildings violating height restrictions around HSIA between 2015 and 2025, but the commission found no clear evidence of corresponding enforcement action.
It recommended an investigation by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and legal action against officials responsible for unlawful land-use changes, planning violations and construction beyond permissible height limits.
Against this backdrop, the commission proposed establishing a joint RAJUK-CAAB cell to continuously oversee construction and structures around the airport and ensure compliance with aviation safety and urban planning requirements.
The report warned that take-off and landing are the most critical phases of flight and that densely occupied establishments along runway approaches could dramatically increase casualties in an accident involving a larger aircraft.
It recommended gradually relocating educational institutions, hospitals, clinics and similar establishments from high-risk areas around existing airports within a specified timeframe.
The commission said the principle should apply nationwide, not only to HSIA. Airport safety zones must be protected around the country's existing airports, while future airports should be safeguarded against incompatible urban development from the outset.
The recommendations bring renewed focus to a critical challenge facing Bangladesh's expanding aviation sector: protecting airports from uncontrolled urban encroachment before surrounding development itself becomes an aviation safety hazard.
