Bangladesh Plane Crash: What We Know About F-7 BGI Training Jets
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school in the country's capital city of Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 20 people.
More than 170 people were injured as the F-7 BGI training jet crashed into the Milestone School and College, in the city's northern Uttara neighborhood.
The pilot, named as Flight Lieutenant Md. Toukir Islam, was among those killed as the plane hit a two-storey building, said the country's military in a statement.
The jet had taken off from Dhaka's AK Khandker Air Force Base for a training flight shortly after 1 p.m. local time, but crashed minutes later due to a mechanical fault, said the statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR). The pilot had attempted to steer the aircraft away from densely populated areas, it added.
Members of the Bangladesh Army and the fire service start rescue operations after a Bangladesh Air Force F7 aircraft crashed into a building of Milestone College in Dhaka's Uttara around 1:30 pm on July...
Members of the Bangladesh Army and the fire service start rescue operations after a Bangladesh Air Force F7 aircraft crashed into a building of Milestone College in Dhaka's Uttara around 1:30 pm on July 21, 2025 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. More
Abdul Goni/Drik/Getty Images
Muhammad Yunus, the leader of the country's interim government, offered his "deep condolences" over the "tragic accident", adding in a social media post that the cause of the crash would be investigated.
The F-7 BGI is an upgraded version of the F-7, an iteration of the Chinese-designed J-7 itself modeled on the aged, Soviet-era MiG-21.
"It's a relatively new version of a very old plane," said Jacob Parakilas, research leader for Defense Strategy, Policy and Capabilities at the European branch of the RAND think tank.
The last F-7 BGI came off the line in 2013, Parakilas told Newsweek. The F-7 was designed as an interceptor aircraft, "which in general means that it's optimized for high speed flight," Parakilas said. But take-off and landing can be "less forgiving" than for aircraft with larger wings, he added.
"The fact that the base model is old doesn't inherently make it unsafe," Parakilas added.
As of early 2025, Bangladesh had 87 combat-capable aircraft, including several variants of the F-7 fighters, according to the U.K.-based defense think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
The country's air force had 12 F-7 BGI jets, as well as 11 F-7 BGs and 7 F-7 MB aircraft, according to the IISS. Bangladesh also operates a handful of Soviet-era MiG-29 aircraft.
Dhaka's military has close ties with China, and has carried out joint exercises with Beijing.
The IISS, in the 2025 edition of its annual review of the world's armed forces, said Bangladesh had plans to boost its combat aircraft fleet, and had invested in its fixed-wing training aircraft.
Dhaka's "limited military capability is focused on border and domestic security," the think tank said.
The government has declared a national day of mourning for Tuesday, domestic media reported.
What People Are Saying
Muhammad Yunus, the country's chief advisor currently leading the interim government in Dhaka, said in a statement: "The damage to the Air Force and Milestone School and College students, parents and teachers including others is irreparable in this accident. This is a moment of deep pain for the nation."
Bangladeshi government advisor, Asif Nazrul, said: "Such a massive, catastrophic accident has never occurred in our national history."
The European Union's delegation in Bangladesh said it was "deeply saddened" by the crash, adding: "Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Wallis Annenberg, visionary philanthropist who helped transform L.A., dies at 85
Her name is ubiquitous in public spaces around Los Angeles: the Wallis Annenberg Building at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, the soon-to-debut Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills. Then there's the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica and Wallis Annenberg GenSpace in Koreatown. Wallis Annenberg, a deep-pocketed philanthropist who helped transform the city through massive donations to arts, education and animal welfare causes, died Monday morning at her home in Los Angeles from complications related to lung cancer, the family said. She was 85. The heiress to Walter Annenberg's publishing empire served, for the last 16 years, as chairwoman of the board, president and chief executive of the influential Annenberg Foundation, which her father started in 1989 after selling TV Guide and other publications to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. A representative said the nonprofit organization has assets of about $1.2 billion. Annenberg, who worked for TV Guide when her father owned Triangle Publications, stepped in as the foundation's vice president after he died in 2002. When her stepmother, Leonore, died seven years later, Annenberg took the helm, broadening its philanthropic scope beyond media, arts and education to include animal welfare, environmental conservation and healthcare. Since she joined the foundation, it has given about $1.5 billion to thousands of organizations and nonprofits in Los Angeles County. Annenberg was fiercely passionate about funding the arts, with an eye toward making culture accessible to all. She founded the free Annenberg Space for Photography, which opened its Century City doors in 2009. (It closed during the pandemic in 2020, but archival material is still online.) The space showed exhibitions spanning the world of hip-hop, the global refugee crisis and war photography, among other subjects. Annenberg was also a longtime board member of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art. She gave $10 million in 2002 to endow LACMA's director's position. LACMA Chief Executive Michael Govan, who came to the museum in 2006 to fill that endowed position, praised Annenberg's philanthropy. 'Wallis Annenberg blessed the Los Angeles community not only with her philanthropy, but also with her guidance about how to improve our community,' Govan said in a statement to The Times, 'from public access to our beautiful beaches to the livelihood of local animals, and the importance of the arts to our daily lives.' Under her leadership, the foundation made $38.5 million in low-interest loans for the construction of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The Zoltan Pali-designed center opened in 2013 in a renovated, 1933 Beverly Hills Post Office and has since become a major cultural hub in the heart of Beverly Hills, infusing the tony neighborhood with vibrant music, theater and dance. Broadway star Patti LuPone, comedian Sarah Silverman and the Martha Graham Dance Company have all graced the stage at the Wallis; the center also offers robust educational programming. When it opened, fellow philanthropist Eli Broad called the center 'a great addition' to Los Angeles and 'another jewel in the region's cultural crown.' Annenberg cared deeply about equity in education. Walter Annenberg had founded the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in 1971, and before that the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. But Wallis Annenberg, a USC board of directors life trustee, helped to steer the school's vision and guide it into the future. She gave $50 million in 2011 to have the Wallis Annenberg Hall built, which nearly doubled the communication and journalism school's footprint when it opened in 2014. More recently, in March, Annenberg gave $5 million to the university for a high-tech, multimedia production studio to be built on USC's Capital Campus in Washington, D.C. It's scheduled to open in August. Exposition Park got a boost in 2004, when the Wallis Annenberg Building at the California Science Center opened, a project made possible with a $25-million challenge grant from Annenberg. The former armory, redesigned by Pritzker-winning architect Thom Mayne, now has classrooms and laboratories for Science Center educational programming. Annenberg has also funded exhibitions there, including the 2019 interactive exhibit 'Dogs! A Science Tail,' which explores the deep bond between humans and canines. It went back on view in May. In 2004, she also stepped in to help underwrite the Annenberg Community Beach House, located on the grounds of the former Marion Davies estate, after hearing the city of Santa Monica might engage private developers to restore the site, which had been operated as a private club for 30 years. The seaside public space is free and features a playground, gallery and volleyball courts, among other amenities. Annenberg was a ferocious animal lover. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — the world's largest urban wildlife crossing, which stretches across 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway between the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains in Agoura Hills — was made possible with a $1-million challenge grant from Annenberg in 2016 followed by $25 million in 2021. When it's completed, the crossing will help animals such as mountain lions, deer and bobcats pass safely over the freeway. The first layers of soil were laid on the overpass in March. Plans call for its completion in 2026. 'I imagine a future for all the wildlife in our area,' Annenberg said in a statement published by The Times in March, 'where it's possible to survive and thrive and the placement of this first soil on the bridge means another step closer to reality.' Annenberg also created a Silicon Beach-based animal shelter, the Wallis Annenberg PetSpace, which opened in 2017 and helps to rehabilitate so-called 'unadoptable' animals before finding them new homes. PetSpace has a medical facility and offers animal adoptions as well as classes to teach people to how to better care for their pets. In recent years, Annenberg had been thinking about quality of life for older adults. In 2022, Annenberg opened the Wallis Annenberg GenSpace, a senior center in Koreatown offering visitors a place to pursue new interests and find community through classes that include belly dancing, horticultural therapy and financial literacy. It also hosts concerts, dances and game nights. After the Palisades and Eaton wildfires earlier this year, the Annenberg Foundation funded short-term and long-term recovery efforts, gifting nonprofits and organizations that included the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and the Team Rubicon Response Fund. Wallis Huberta Annenberg was born in the affluent Main Line area of Philadelphia and grew up, from age 10, in Washington, D.C. Her mother was Bernice Veronica Dunkelman, who went by Ronny. Annenberg had a younger brother, Roger, who died in 1962 when he was 22. She graduated from Pine Manor Junior College in Wellesley, Mass., and attended one year of college at Columbia University before dropping out to get married to neurosurgeon Seth Weingarten. The couple divorced in 1975. Prior to their divorce, Annenberg had moved to Los Angeles with Weingarten and her children in the early '70s. Annenberg was drawn to the city's energy, creativity and diversity. Despite her public profile, Annenberg was known to be press shy. The billionaire philanthropist was particularly family-oriented and enjoyed evenings at home with her children and grandchildren. She was also an avid sports fan and loved watching football on TV, martini in hand. The breadth of Annenberg's philanthropy was global; but it was most keenly focused on Los Angeles. Annenberg received the 2022 National Humanities Medal from President Biden for her life in philanthropy. As outlined in the family trust, control of the foundation passes onto the next generation: Three of Annenberg's four children who are on the board of directors: Lauren Bon, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Charles Annenberg Weingarten. Roger Annenberg Weingarten lives in the L.A. area. Bon is an artist and founding director of L.A.-based Metabolic Studio, a not-for-profit interdisciplinary art and research hub that explores environmental issues. Gregory Annenberg Weingarten is a former journalist with the Times of London and now is an artist, exhibiting in Europe and the U.S. Charles Annenberg Weingarten is a philanthropist and filmmaker who created Explore, which documents, through films and photographs, selfless acts globally (and has a network of live-cams trained on wildlife). Besides her four children, Annenberg is survived by five grandchildren.
Miami Herald
5 hours ago
- Miami Herald
4 Florida Lottery winning tickets on Sunday, 3 of them from Miami, Palm Beach
Two days of no jackpots won from the Florida Lottery's big money draw games ended Sunday with gas station players from Kendall to Tampa benefitting from their luck.. A quintet of even numbers -- 6, 8, 10, 18 and 24 -- were the Fantasy 5 midday draw and on a free Quick Pick ticket at a Boynton Beach 7-Eleven store and gas station, 7044 Lawrence Road, and a Sunoco at 3401 E. Hillsborough Ave. in Tampa. Each ticket won $25,818. The Fantasy 5 evening draw pulled up 3, 13, 17, 28 and 33, which matched tickets bought at a Kendall Shell station, 9598 SW 137th Ave., and a Wellington Marathon station at 2741 S. State Rd. 7. Each ticket is worth $48,305. These tickets must be cashed at one of the Florida Lottery offices, which are open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Appointments can be made, but aren't required. The Miami district office is 14621 Oak Ln. in Miami Lakes, and can be reached at 305-364-3080 or MIARC@ The West Palm Beach district office actually is in Palm Springs, 4360 Forest Hill Blvd., 561-640-6190 and WPBRC@
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
A sound I've never heard in my life - then the jet flew over my head
"It was like 30 or 40 thunderbolts falling from the sky," said Ahnaf Bin Hasan, an 18-year-old student whose voice still trembled two days after the crash. "I've never heard a sound like that in my life - it came from the sky. In a split second, the fighter jet flew over my head and crashed into the school building." The Bangladesh Air Force F-7 plane had plummeted from the sky and slammed into the primary school building of the Milestone School and College in Dhaka on Monday, marking Bangladesh's deadliest aviation disaster in decades. At least 31 people were killed - many of them schoolchildren under 12 - while waiting to be picked up, heading to coaching classes, or grabbing a quick snack. Clad in his chocolate brown shirt and black trousers, school badge pinned neatly, Ahnaf was chatting with a friend under a canopy on the playground of the sprawling 12-acre campus of Milestone School and College, in the busy Uttara neighbourhood. He says he was barely 30 feet away when the jet nosedived into the building. Ahnaf instinctively dropped to the ground, bracing his head with his hands. When he opened his eyes, the world around him had changed. "All I could see was smoke, fire, and darkness. Children were screaming. Everything was chaos," he told the BBC on the phone. The air force said the jet, on a training flight, experienced a mechanical fault shortly after takeoff. The pilot, who ejected just before the crash, later died in hospital. "I saw the pilot eject," Ahnaf said. "After the crash, I looked up and saw his white parachute descending. He broke through the tin roof of another building. I heard he was alive after landing, even asked for water. A helicopter came and took him away." As smoke and flames spread through the school, Ahnaf's instincts kicked in. A flaming splinter from the burning plane had struck his backpack, singed his trousers and scorched his hand. "It was so hot, but I threw the bag aside and ran to help." He ran toward the concrete walkway separating the playground from the two-storey primary school building. The plane had slammed into the gate, burrowed six to seven feet into the ground, then tilted upward, crashed into the first floor, and exploded. Two classrooms named Cloud and Sky had become the ground zero of the crash. Near the entrance, Ahnaf saw a student's body, torn apart. "It looked like the plane had hit him before slamming into the building," he said. "He was younger than us." The five-building campus, usually buzzing with student chatter, had turned into a scene of fire, splintered metal, and screaming. Amid the smoke, Ahnaf spotted a junior student whose skin was scorched and whose body had been pulled out of the blaze by a friend. "His friend told me, 'I can't do this alone. Can you help me?' So I picked the boy up, put him on my shoulder, and carried him to the medical room." Another woman was on fire. Children ran from the building stripped to their underclothes, their garments burned off, their skin blistering in the intense heat. "On the second floor, students were stranded and screaming," Ahnaf said. "We broke open a grille to reach one of the gates, which was on fire. The army and fire service came in and rescued some of them." Ahnaf, like many others, quickly took on roles far beyond his age. "We helped control the crowds, kept people away from the fire. We cleared the roads for ambulances and helped fire service crews pull their pipes through the campus." At one point, he gave the shirt off his back - literally. "One student had nothing on him. I took off my uniform and gave it to him. I continued bare-bodied with the rescue." But the weight of so many young lives lost at the school is something he says will be hard to overcome. One of them was 11-year-old Wakia Firdous Nidhi. She had walked to school that morning like any other day. When the plane hit, her father was at prayer - he ran barefoot from the mosque as soon as he heard. Her uncle, Syed Billal Hossain, told me that the family spent the entire night searching more than half a dozen hospitals. "We walked across Uttara, helpless. Someone said six bodies were at one hospital. At one in the morning on Tuesday, her father identified her - by her teeth and a problem in her eye. But we still haven't been given the body." The pain of losing a child was only compounded by the bureaucratic maze. Despite identifying their daughter by a dental feature and a lens in her eye, the family was told the body wouldn't be released without DNA tests - because there were multiple claimants. First, a police report had to be filed. Then the father gave blood at the military hospital. Now they were waiting for the mother's sample to be drawn. "We know it's her," said Mr Hossain. "But they still won't hand over the body." Wakia, the youngest of three siblings, lived next door to her uncle in an old ancestral home in Diabari. "She grew up in front of our eyes - playing on rooftops, sitting under the coconut tree next to our house, always cradling her baby niece. She was just a child, and she loved children," said Mr Hossain. "I saw her just the day before," he said. "If not for that after-school coaching, she'd be alive." In the chaos and heartbreak that followed the crash, moments of narrow escape and immense courage stood out. One mother told BBC Bengali how she'd given her child money for tiffin instead of packing lunch that morning. During the break, he stepped out to buy food - and unknowingly avoided death by mere chance. "He is alive because I didn't give him tiffin," she said. Another parent's tragedy was unimaginable. He lost both his children within hours. His daughter died first. After burying her, he returned to the hospital only to wake from a brief nap and be told his young son, too, had died. And then there was Mahreen Chowdhury. The teacher, responsible for children in Classes 3 to 5, helped at least 20 students flee the inferno. Refusing to leave, she kept going back into the flames - until her body was burned over 80%. Chowdhury died a hero, saving the lives of those too young to save themselves. For staff at the school, it's like living in a nightmare. "I can't function normally anymore. Every time I look at the building, a wave of grief crashes over me. I feel lost, unwell and depressed. I've lost three children I knew - one of them was my colleague's," said Shafiqul Islam Tultul, a 43-year-old Bengali teacher. In the aftermath, questions and confusion have swirled around the scale of the tragedy. The government has reported 29 deaths and more than 100 injuries, with seven victims still unidentified. However, the military's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) puts the toll at 31. According to the Health Ministry, 69 people were injured in the crash and rescue efforts - including 41 students. Social media has buzzed with speculation about a possible cover-up, claims the Bangladesh Armed Forces have firmly denied. Meanwhile, the school's head teacher Khadija Akhter told BBC Bengali that families have reported five people still missing. For the eyewitnesses and survivors, the trauma lingers. "I haven't slept for two days," Ahnaf says. "Every time I look outside, I feel like a fighter jet is coming at me. The screams are still in my ears." Fighter jets and commercial planes often fly over the campus, which lies close to Dhaka's international airport. "We're in the flight path," Ahnaf said. "We're used to seeing planes overhead - but we never imagined one would fall from the sky and strike us." Yet, the horrors of that day haunt him relentlessly. The screams, the fire, and the charred bodies of classmates and teachers refuse to fade. "When I close my eyes, it's not darkness I see - it's smoke."
