Bangladesh air force jet crashes into school, killing at least 20

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A Bangladeshi air force jet crashed Monday into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka, killing at least 20 people, the government’s media office said. More than 160 were injured, according to the military’s communications office. At least 43 of those injured were younger than 18, according to Bangladesh’s National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Most of the victims were students at the Milestone School and College in the neighborhood of Uttara, the media office said. Thousands of students from prekindergarten through high school attend Milestone across multiple locations, according to its website.

The media office said in a statement that the F-7 BGI fighter jet crashed after a “technical malfunction” shortly after takeoff. The “mechanical failure,” which occurred during a routine training mission, is under investigation, the statement said.

The pilot, Flight Lt. Towkir Islam, died in the crash, the military said.

Police and military responders arrived on the scene soon after the crash, people there said. Videos of the scene show chaos as security forces evacuate students and staff members.

A student at Milestone, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the military, said Monday evening that many students were still missing.

He said he rescued at least 30 people before police and air force personnel arrived. They held back teachers and students from helping, he said.

“The jet plane hit the building where grades one to eight were located,” he said. “It hit the Grade 4 and Grade 6 classrooms, and in every room at least 35 to 40 students were present.”

Another student, Abdu Rahaman, 18, a member of the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps – a reserve force for students – said the army forced teachers and students away from the scene using sticks. Once troops had secured the area, construction equipment was brought in to move soil away from the crash site. He said he was worried that some bodies might still be buried.

Photos taken at the crash site showed firefighters dousing the charred wreckage of what appeared to be an aircraft engine, lodged inside a blackened building. Paramedics could be seen carrying the injured on stretchers as a large rescue effort unfolded.

The crash was one of the deadliest in Bangladesh’s history. In 1984, 49 people were killed when a passenger jet crashed as it attempted to land during a severe rainstorm at the Dhaka airport, plunging into a marsh and leaving no survivors.

In May of last year, a Bangladeshi air force training aircraft crashed into a river in Chittagong, the country’s second-largest city. A squadron leader was killed in the crash, according to local media.

In March 2018, a flight from Dhaka crashed at the airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 50 people. Investigators said the captain suffered an emotional breakdown during the flight.

China delivered 16 F-7 BGI jets – a version of the J-7 aircraft – to the Bangladeshi air force in 2013, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Many at the crash site Monday said they were traumatized by what they saw.

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam Tutul, 43, an associate professor of Bangla language at Milestone, said he heard what he thought was a bomb blast. Then he saw the fire and smoke of the crash and called the college’s principal and the fire service.

“I saw two dead bodies in front of my eyes instantly,” Tutul said. “This jet crashed, burned our hopes and dreams – it will kill me, haunt me, a human disaster in front of me.”

“All the students were like my children,” he said.

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Mehrotra and Kumar reported from New Delhi, Sands from London and Javaid from Washington.