Dhaka: The Bangladesh government has formed a nine-member commission to investigate last week’s crash of its Air Force training jet into a school here that killed 34 people, mostly students, according to a media report.
The F-7 BGI aircraft, a training fighter jet manufactured in China, experienced a “mechanical fault” moments after takeoff and crashed into a two-storey building of Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara area on last Monday.
The probe commission headed by former secretary AKM Zafar Ullah Khan has been asked to submit its report within four weeks, The Daily Star newspaper cited a Cabinet Division gazette issued on Sunday.
The other members include a retired air vice marshal, three additional secretaries from three ministries, the Dhaka divisional commissioner, an urban planner, and a professor of the mechanical engineering department of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
The probe commission will examine the cause of the tragic crash, assess damage and casualties, and determine the responsibilities, the report said.
It will assess the loss of lives and injuries suffered by students, teachers, and others, and determine the extent of all damages.
Additionally, it will review the construction of Milestone School and College, as well as other structures near the airport, assess the legal and administrative aspects concerning the location and safety of the flying zone, and make recommendations to prevent such accidents in the future.
It will also make suggestions on the operation of training aircraft, the construction of buildings in flying zones, and emergency response protocols during catastrophic events.
The Bangladesh Air Force has already formed a high-level investigation committee to determine the cause of the accident.
The crash was one of the deadliest in Bangladesh’s history.
In the last such aviation tragedy in 1984, a total of 49 people were killed when a passenger jet crashed as it attempted to land during a severe rainstorm at the Dhaka airport.
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