Bangladesh jet crash: What we know about the deadly crash into a Dhaka school
How did the crash happen?
The training aircraft had taken off from a Bangladesh Air Force Base in Dhaka at just after 13:06 local time (07:06 GMT) and crashed soon after in the Uttara neighbourhood. The air force said in a statement that the F-7 jet had suffered a mechanical fault and the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam, had tried to steer it to a less crowded area. He was among those killed.A teacher at the college, Rezaul Islam, told BBC Bangla that he saw the plane "directly" hit the building.Another teacher, Masud Tarik, told Reuters that he heard an explosion: "When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke... There were many guardians and kids here."Images from the scene in the hours after the crash showed scores of emergency service workers sorting through charred rubble in a bid to find survivors. An investigation committee has been formed to look into the incident, said the armed forces in a statement.
Who are the victims?
Most of the victims were enrolled at the Milestone School and College, a private institution with around 2,000 students, from pre-school to senior secondary levels. At least 17 of the deceased are children, the health ministry said on Monday. Year 10 student Farhan Hasan told BBC Bangla he had just left the building after finishing an exam when he saw the plane crash into the building."My best friend, the one I was in the exam hall with, he died right in front of my eyes," he said."And many parents were standing inside because the younger kids were coming out since it was the end of the school day... the plane took the parents along with it."One man's eight-year-old nephew was among the students who died in the crash. "My beloved nephew is in the morgue right now," he said, his hand resting on the arm of his younger brother, the boy's father, who kept repeating: "Where is my son?"A teacher told the Dhaka Tribune that classes for grades five to seven were being held in the building where the plane crashed. "Although classes ended around 13:00, many students were waiting for private coaching," the teacher said.At least 170 people were injured with an on-duty doctor at the Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital saying most of the injured were aged between 10 and 15 years old, many suffering from jet fuel burns.More than 50 people were taken to hospital with burns, many in critical condition, said a doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
How common are air crashes like these?
Plane crashes are relatively rare in Bangladesh. The last time it saw a major plane disaster was in 1984, when all 49 people aboard a Biman flight - Bangladesh's national flag carrier - died after the plane crashed into a marsh while landing near the airport in Dhaka.In 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight crashed while trying to land at an airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 51 people.In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing the pilot.
What happens now?
The city is still reeling from the mass casualty event, and medical efforts are underway.The National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery was on Monday swarmed by family members trying to find their loved ones, as well as volunteers who queued up to donate blood to the injured. A number of politicians were also seen visiting victims at the hospital.
An emergency hotline has been launched to deal with casualties from the crash, Muhammad Yunus, leader of Bangladesh's interim government, wrote on X.Yunus said that the bodies of those who could be identified would be handed to their families, while the others would be identified through DNA testing.He also urged the public to avoid unnecessarily crowding at hospitals to allow medical work to continue undisrupted."Necessary measures" would be taken to investigate the cause of the incident and "ensure all kinds of assistance", he said. An investigation committee has been set up to look into the incident, authorities have said.The incident has drawn condolences from leaders of neighbouring countries, including Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
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"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 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. 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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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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."
