Dhaka: A Bangladesh air force training aircraft crashed into a school in Dhaka shortly after takeoff on Monday afternoon, catching fire and killing the pilot and at least 19 other people, most of whom were students, officials said.
Another 171 students were rescued with injuries from a smoldering two-storey building, officials said, including many with burns who were whisked away in helicopters, motorised rickshaws and the arms of firefighters and parents.
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical malfunction” moments after takeoff from an air force base and the pilot attempted to divert the plane to a less populated area before crashing into the campus of Milestone School and College, according to a statement from the military. Students said the school’s buildings trembled violently, followed by a big explosion that sent them running for safety. A desperate scene soon unfolded at the crash site, as panicked relatives searched for loved ones. The Milestone school is in Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood, roughly 11 km drive from AK Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes.
The pilot, flight lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, made “every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,” the military said, adding it would investigate the cause of the accident. It is the deadliest plane crash in Dhaka in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 air force training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem.
