Latest news with #BangladeshAirForce
Canada News.Net
8 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Bangladesh declares day of mourning after deadly plane crash
DHAKA, Bangladesh: At least 27 people have been killed and over 170 injured after a Bangladesh Air Force jet crashed into the campus of a private school in Dhaka on July 21, in one of the capital's deadliest aviation disasters in recent memory. The F-7 BGI aircraft, a Chinese-built fighter used for training purposes, went down shortly after taking off from the A.K. Khandaker Air Base in Dhaka's Kurmitola neighborhood at 1:06 p.m. The jet crashed into Milestone School and College in the Uttara area, igniting a fire and causing extensive damage to a two-story school building. Officials confirmed the pilot was among the dead. Twenty deaths were initially reported, with seven more victims succumbing to their injuries overnight, according to a military spokesperson and local fire officials. Medical teams said that the condition of nearly two dozen victims remains critical. Of the 171 injured, most were students who were attending afternoon classes at the time. Witnesses described scenes of chaos as emergency responders rushed to evacuate children and school staff. Many of the wounded were transported to a specialized burn hospital in Dhaka, where a blood donation camp has been set up to support ongoing treatment efforts. Twenty bodies have so far been returned to families. Some of the victims were burned beyond recognition, and authorities may need to conduct DNA testing to confirm their identities. According to an official military statement, the jet experienced a "technical malfunction" shortly after takeoff. The pilot reportedly attempted to steer the aircraft away from densely populated areas before it struck the school compound. An Air Force investigation team has been formed to determine the exact cause of the crash. Milestone School and College, which serves approximately 2,000 students from elementary through 12th grade, is a leading private institution focused on academics, extracurricular activities, and global opportunities. The school has operated in Dhaka for more than two decades. Rafiqa Taha, a student not present at the time, told the Associated Press that classes were underway across several grades when the crash occurred. Local media have reported that many of the injured were inside classrooms or on the school grounds when the jet came down. The incident has shocked Dhaka, a city of more than 20 million residents. Interim national leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his condolences to the victims' families and promised a full investigation. "This is a heartbreaking tragedy," Yunus said, adding that every effort would be made to support survivors and determine accountability. In response to the disaster, the government declared a national day of mourning the day after the crash. Flags flew at half-staff across the country in honor of the victims. This crash is the deadliest involving a military aircraft in Dhaka in recent history. The last similar incident occurred in 2008 when another F-7 training jet crashed outside the capital, killing the pilot after he ejected due to a technical failure. As investigators begin to comb through the wreckage and eyewitness accounts, questions remain about the maintenance, safety protocols, and aging aircraft used by the Bangladeshi Air Force for training missions. For now, the country mourns the loss of lives, many of them young students, in what has become a national tragedy. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X: "Our hearts go out to the bereaved families. India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance."
Hans India
18 hours ago
- General
- Hans India
Bangladesh plane crash: Three students, two guardians still missing
Dhaka: Five people, including three students and two guardians from Bangladesh's Milestone school and college are still missing after Monday's horrific air crash in Dhaka, an official statement by the institute detailed on Thursday. On a routine training exercise early Monday afternoon, the Bangladesh Air Force FT-7 BGI fighter had crashed into the building on the permanent Diabari campus of Milestone School and college. The students were reportedly waiting for their guardians after school when the plane crashed, leaving everyone 'shocked', 'speechless' and 'utterly overwhelmed', reported Bangladesh's leading daily, 'The Dhaka Tribune'. Everyone nearby rushed to the spot to assist in rescue efforts, and were soon joined by personnel from the Bangladesh Army, Fire services, Air Force, Navy and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), undertaking a high risk operation. The school authority, with utmost grief, further confirmed the death of 18 school students, as well as two teachers and two guardians. It was reported by local media that 40 students, along with seven teachers, one guardian, and two staff members were seriously injured, taking the number of injured to 51. The Milestone school authorities said that the number of these figures were reflected to only those associated with Milestone School and college, with continuous efforts to update any given information. Further, according to the notice released by the school, the list of the total figure of casualty is being compiled as well as released by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Bangladesh armed forces. The school authorities expressed their condolences to the families that suffered "and are suffering" because of the crash, affirming their continued support for the treatment of the ones injured.
South China Morning Post
21 hours ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Bangladesh jet crash: military aircraft accident kills 31, including 25 school children
A Bangladesh Air Force jet slammed into the Milestone School and College in the capital city Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 31 people - including 25 children, most very young. Some 165 were left injured, the armed forces public relations directorate (ISPR) said Tuesday. This is the country's deadliest air incident in recent memory. Here is a look at what happened. How did the crash occur? The fighter aircraft took off at 1:06 pm local time from the air force base in Dhaka's Kurmitola for a routine training mission. But it experienced a mechanical failure soon after. The pilot attempted to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas to minimise civilian casualties and damage, but his efforts were unsuccessful and the jet crashed into a building. Where did the plane go down? The two-storey building that the plane rammed into belonged to the Milestone School and College in Dhaka's Diabari area, located about 10km (6 miles) from the air force base. Visuals from the scene showed the aircraft's mangled remains dented into the side of the building, dismantling its iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure. Mohammed Russell shows a cellphone photo of his nephew, Md Ashikur Rahman Umair, who died when a military training jet crashed into an educational institution in Dhaka on July 23, 2025. Photo: AFP How many people were killed and injured? The bodies of at least 27 people, including 25 children, a teacher, and the jet's pilot, were pulled out from the debris on Monday. By Tuesday, the death toll had reached 31, including those who succumbed to injuries. More than 165 people were injured, with an on-duty doctor at Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital saying most were aged between 10 and 15 years old. Which aircraft was involved? The jet was an F-7 fighter aircraft - the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Bangladesh had signed a contract in 2011 for 16 such planes, and deliveries were completed by 2013. Bangladeshi students shout slogans and hold placards near the crash site. Photo: EPA How has the country reacted? The Bangladesh Air Force formed a high-level investigation committee to probe the cause of the accident. Flags flew at half mast across the country in a day of mourning for the victims on Tuesday. Hundreds of students gathered to demand answers. Witnesses were still visibly shaken by the horror they had seen the day before. Bangladesh's interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday that, 'I have no words. I don't know how to begin.' 'None of us ever imagined it. It wasn't within anyone's expectations. But we had to suddenly accept this unbelievable reality,' Yunus said in a video message. 'What answer can we give to their parents? What can we possibly say to them? We can't even answer ourselves,' he said. Additional reporting by CNN
BBC News
a day ago
- General
- BBC News
Bangladesh plane crash: Teacher dies after rescuing 20 kids
"Those kids are my kids too," Mahreen Chowdhury told her husband as she lay dying in hours earlier, the teacher had been standing at the entrance to Milestone School and College in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, preparing to hand the second- to fifth-grade students over to their in a split second, what had been an unremarkable Monday lunchtime turned to horror.A Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into a two-storey building, bursting into - realising there were students still in the building's classrooms - ran back into the burning wreckage."I did my best to pull out about 20 to 25 people - as much as I could," Chowdhury's husband Mansur Helal recalls her saying, moments before she was put on ventilation at the intensive care unit of Dhaka's National Burn Institute. "I don't know what happened after that."Chowdhury died later on Monday: in the process of rescuing the children, she had suffered burns to almost 100% of her was among the at least 31 people killed in the accident - 25 of whom are children. Bangladesh's armed forces said that the F7 jet had experienced a mechanical fault after taking off for a training exercise just after 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Monday, and that the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam, had tried to steer to a less crowded area. He was among those crash marks the deadliest aviation disaster the country has seen in than 160 people were injured, with an on-duty doctor at the Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital saying most were aged between 10 and 15 years old, many suffering from jet fuel burns. More than 50, including children and adults, were taken to hospital with burns, a doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery Helal told BBC Bangla that he first called his wife after hearing the news of the plane crash. When she didn't answer, he asked his eldest son to go to the school and find out what had after, he received a call from an ambulance driver telling him that his wife was being taken to the burns unit at Uttara Modern Medical Hospital. She would later be taken to the ICU. Mr Helal said Chowdhury apologised to him from her hospital bed, shortly before being placed on ventilation. As he recalled their final moments together, he broke down in tears."She was still alive. She spoke the highest words with great mental strength. Because almost its hundred percent burn inner and outer," he worked at Milestone School and College for 17 years, having first joined as a teacher before being promoted to become a coordinator in the Bangla department for classes two to was buried on Tuesday in her home district of Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh, as flags flew at half mast across the country in a day of mourning for the victims. Muhammad Yunus, the leader of Bangladesh's interim government, has said that an investigation committee has been formed to look into the Dhaka on Tuesday, hundreds of protesting students took to the streets to demand an accurate death toll and the resignation of the education adviser – many of them breaking through the main gate of the federal government secretariat, according to local TV fired tear gas and used sound grenades to disperse the crowd, leaving dozens of people injured, witnesses protesters called for the crash victims to be named, as well as compensation for victims' families, the decommissioning of what they said were old and dangerous jets, and a change to air force training Bangladesh air disaster comes just weeks after neighbouring India witnessed the world's worst aviation disaster in a Air India passenger plane bound for London's Gatwick airport crashed shortly after taking off in Ahmedabad, western India, on 12 June, killing 260 crash killed 242 people on board the flight and 19 others on the ground, with only one survivor from the plane.
AsiaOne
a day ago
- General
- AsiaOne
Teacher dies saving students from inferno in Bangladesh jet crash, Asia News
DHAKA — When a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet crashed into her school and erupted in a fireball on Monday (July 21), Maherin Chowdhury rushed to save some of the hundreds of students and teachers facing mortal danger, placing their safety before her own. The 46-year-old English teacher went back again and again into a burning classroom to rescue her students, even as her own clothes were engulfed in flames, her brother, Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, told Reuters by telephone. Maherin died on Monday after suffering near total burns on her body. She is survived by her husband and two teenaged sons. "When her husband called her, pleading with her to leave the scene and think of her children, she refused, saying 'they are also my children, they are burning. How can I leave them?'" Chowdhury said. At least 29 people, most of them children, were killed when the F-7 BGI crashed into the school, trapping them in fire and debris. The military said the aircraft had suffered mechanical failure. "I don't know exactly how many she saved, but it may have been at least 20. She pulled them out with her own hands," he said, adding that he found out about his sister's act of bravery when he visited the hospital and met students she had rescued. The jet had taken off from a nearby air base on a routine training mission, the military said. After experiencing mechanical failure the pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from populated areas, but it crashed into the campus. The pilot was among those killed. "When the plane crashed and fire broke out, everyone was running to save their lives, she ran to save others," Khadija Akter, the headmistress of the school's primary section, told Reuters on phone about Maherin. She was buried on Tuesday in her home district of Nilphamari, in northern Bangladesh. [[nid:720474]]
