A Bangladeshi training fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on July 21, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens more in the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades. Photo / Jubair Bin Iqbal, AFP
A Bangladeshi training fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on July 21, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens more in the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades. Photo / Jubair Bin Iqbal, AFP
A Bangladeshi fighter jet has crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170 in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.
Many of the victims were young students who had just been let out of class when a Chinese-made F-7BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College yesterday.
Fire and rescue officials took away the injured students on stretchers, while army personnel helped clear the mangled wreckage.
A military statement said 20 people were killed, including the pilot, and 171 others injured when the jet crashed after a mechanical failure.
Student, Shafiur Rahman Shafi, 18, said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake.
“It created a boom and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire,” he told AFP.
The well-known private school offers education to children from kindergarten through to senior secondary.
Most of the injured were aged between 8 and 14, said Mohammad Maruf Islam, joint director of Dhaka’s National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute where many victims were treated.
The military said the pilot was on a routine training mission when the jet “reportedly encountered a mechanical failure”.
“The exact cause remains under investigation,” it said.
The pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas but, “despite his best efforts”, crashed into the two-storey school building, the military added.
It was Towkir’s first solo flight, his uncle Motakabbir told AFP.
“His mother was nervous yet happy and had been eagerly waiting for the completion of her son’s first solo flight,” said Motakabbir, who uses only one name.
Shuvra Ghosh,said her 8-year-old niece was rescued by a teacher who broke open a window to bring her out.
“We are mentally traumatised,” she told AFP.
The interim Government of Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday.
Yunus expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the crash in a post on X.
“The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable,” he said.
“This is a moment of profound pain for the nation.”
The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades.
The deadliest disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.
Last month, a commercial aircraft crashed in neighbouring India, killing 260 people.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply shocked and saddened at the loss of lives” in Dhaka.
