“When I was picking (up) my kids and went to the gate, I realised something came from behind … I heard an explosion. When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke,” Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school, said.
The Milestone school is in Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood, which is about 11 kilometres drive from the A.K. Khandaker air force base. The school is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes.
The pilot, Flight Lt. 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 that it would investigate the cause of the accident.
It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem.
The government announced a national day of mourning on Tuesday, with flags to fly at half-mast across the country.
At the crash site Monday afternoon, a father sprinted with his daughter cradled in his arms. A mother cried out, having found her younger child, but desperately searched for her older one.
The father of a missing girl cries at the scene.Credit: AP
Another father described his feeling of helplessness while waiting to learn the fate of his daughter.
“The plane crashed on the building where my daughter was. My wife called me, but I was praying so I could not pick up,” Jewel, who goes by one name, said at the scene. “When I came here I saw there was a huge fire. There was a dead body of a child.”
Luckily, his daughter was safe, he said, but he saw many other children suffering from burns.
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Students also scrambled to see what had happened. “We fought with the crowd and the soldiers to get close to the crash site in our school,” said Estiak Elahi Khan, who is in the 11th grade. “What I saw, I can’t describe that … that’s terrible.”
Doctors at Uttara Adhunik Hospital said more than 60 students, many between the ages of 12 and 16, were transferred to a special hospital for burn victims.
By Monday evening, rescuers continued to scour the debris, searching for bodies. A crane was being used to remove debris.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, also pledged an investigation, and he expressed his deep sorrow over the “heartbreaking accident.” He called it “a moment of deep national grief.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed shock and sadness. “Our hearts go out to the bereaved families,” Modi said in a post on X. “India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance.”
Firemen check the wreckage of a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft that crashed onto a school campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Credit: AP
Rafiqa Taha, a student who was not present at the time of the crash, said by phone that the school, with some 2000 students, offers classes from elementary grades through high school.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” the 16-year-old said. “My God! It’s my school.”
The tragedy comes weeks after a UK-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after take-off in India’s Ahmedabad city on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
According to defence and security open-source website Jane’s Information Group, the air force jet involved in Monday’s crash was the most advanced variant in China’s Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family.
Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. The Chengdu F-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet MiG-21.
AP, Reuters
