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What is the Chinese-made F-7 jet that crashed into Bangladesh school?

What is the Chinese-made F-7 jet that crashed into Bangladesh school?

Reuters2 days ago
July 22 (Reuters) - A Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet on a routine training mission crashed into a college and school campus in the capital Dhaka on Monday after what the military said was a mechanical failure. At least 31 people were killed, most of them children.
Here's what we know about the F-7 BGI jet that went down:
The F-7 BGI, which crashed soon after take-off, is a lightweight fighter jet, the final and most advanced version of China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 family, according to Jane's Information Group.
The Chengdu J-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet era MiG-21 and is used for training and limited combat roles. The F-7 is the export variant of J-7.
The South Asian country's air force has operated F-7 variants since the 1980s. Dhaka signed a contract for 16 BGI version aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013 - the final batch of the manufactured jets.
China manufactured the jets from 1965 to 2013, making it one of the longest-running fighter production lines there. Due to its affordability, the jet was widely exported, especially to developing nations.
The J-7 was fully decommissioned from the Chinese military by the end of 2023 but several countries still use the export variant.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran and North Korea are among the countries that have used or still use variants of the F-7.
Pakistan is the largest operator of F-7 aircraft and has 66 of them, according to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Pakistan also has one of China's most advanced warplanes, the J-10, and used it to launch air-to-air missiles to bring down at least two Indian fighter jets during the recent conflict between the two countries.
May 2025 - An Air Force of Zimbabwe pilot died when a F-7 crashed during a routine sortie in the Southern African nation.
June 2022 - A J-7 crashed into residential buildings in the Chinese city of Xiangyang in central Hubei Province, killing at least one person on the ground.
May 2022 - Two Iranian pilots died after their F-7 crashed during a training mission near Anarak, 200 km (125 miles) east of the city of Isfahan.
January 2022 - Two Pakistani Air Force pilots were killed when a FT-7 aircraft, a variant of the F-7, crashed.
There have been a number of other incidents with F-7 jets in Pakistan that resulted in deaths of pilots.
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