Dhaka: At least 20 people, including the pilot and mostly children, are reported to be killed and over 170 injured after a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed atop a college building on Monday, officials said.
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed into the Milestone School and College campus in Dhaka’s Uttara area.
After crashing, the aircraft caught fire. The rising smoke could be seen from quite a distance. Eight Fire Service units rushed to the spot to put out the blaze.
“An F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm today and crashed into the college campus soon after. We have so far recovered 19 bodies from the compound alone. At least 50 others are critically injured. Rescue operation is underway,” Brigadier General Zahed Kamal, Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told reporters.
The crash was one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Bangladesh in several decades, Bangla-language daily Prothom Alo reported.
Flight Lieutenant Mohammad Towkir Islam, who was being treated in the ICU of the Combined Military Hospital, has succumbed to his injuries. He attempted to steer the aircraft away from densely populated areas. However, despite his efforts, the aircraft tragically crashed into the two-storey building of the school, said the ISPR – the media wing of the military.
The wounded are being treated at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (NIBPS), informed Md Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus for the Health Ministry.
Rahman added that 72 people were hospitalised with burns and other types of injuries.
According to doctors, eight of the injured were in critical condition. “The number of injured people being brought to our facility is rising,” a doctor at NIBPS told reporters.
Interim govt declares one-day state mourning
The interim government has declared a one-day state mourning on July 22, when the national flag will be flown at half-mast across Bangladesh and its missions abroad.
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus expressed shock and sorrow over the casualties caused by the crash. “I am deeply saddened by the casualties caused by the heartbreaking accident involving a Bangladesh Air Force jet at the Milestone School and College campus,” he said in a statement.
Teachers, students recall horror
Recounting the experience, a teacher who was injured in the incident said students were lining up to leave the school just as the final bell rang when the flames erupted.
“There was no warning. Before we even understood what was happening, there were flames all around. Visibility dropped instantly. All I could see was fire, then smoke,” the teacher said. “Both of my hands were burnt. I’m also experiencing breathing difficulties, and my face and ears are scorched.”
Another teacher said that security personnel were putting bodies in body bags to be taken to Dhaka’s combined military hospital from the damaged building, which housed classes from one to seven. “Dozens of ambulances were carrying the wounded to nearby hospitals,” she said.
Fahim Hossain, an eleventh-grade student, said that the jet crashed right in front of his eyes – just 10 feet ahead of him. “It hit the ground floor of a two-storey building around 1:15 pm, where classes for the primary section were taking place,” Fahim told The Daily Star.
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