20 killed when a Bangladesh Air Force training plane crashes into a Dhaka school
Shortly after taking off on Monday afternoon, a Bangladesh Air Force training plane crashed into a school in the capital, Dhaka. The plane caught fire, killing the pilot and at least 19 other persons, the majority of whom were kids, according to officials.
According to officials, 171 more pupils were pulled from a burning two-story building with injuries. Many of them had burns and were taken away in helicopters, motorized rickshaws, and the arms of parents and firefighters.
The pilot of the Chinese-built F-7 BGI training aircraft tried to steer the aircraft to a less populated area before it crashed into the Milestone School and College campus after a “technical malfunction” occurred shortly after takeoff at 1:06 p.m. local time, the military said.
Students reported that after the buildings in the school shook violently, there was a large explosion that caused them to flee for their lives. As frantic family members looked for loved ones, a desperate scene quickly developed at the crash site. A nearby hospital was filled with screams.
Situated in the Uttara neighborhood of Dhaka, the Milestone school is around 11 kilometers (7 miles) away by car from the A.K. Khandaker air force base. The school is located in a crowded neighborhood close to a metro station, as well as a lot of stores and residences.
Flight Lt. Mohammed Toukir Islam, the pilot, 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 look into what caused the mishap.
The plane disaster in the capital of Bangladesh is the deadliest in recent memory. Another F-7 training plane crashed west of Dhaka in 2008, killing the pilot who had ejected after realizing there was a technical issue.
Flags will fly at half-staff nationwide on Tuesday, the administration stated, in observance of a national day of mourning.
A man ran with his daughter in his arms at the scene of the collision on Monday afternoon. A mother screamed as she frantically looked for her older child after finding her smaller one.
Another father talked about how he felt powerless while he waited to find out what had happened to his daughter.
“My daughter was in the building when the jet crashed. At the scene, Jewel, who goes by one name, stated, “My wife called, but I was praying so I couldn’t pick up.” “I noticed a massive fire when I first arrived. A child’s body was found dead.
He claimed that his daughter was fortunate to be unharmed, but he witnessed numerous other kids with burns.
Students rushed to find out what had transpired as well. “To get near the crash site in our school, we fought with the crowd and the soldiers,” 11th grader Estiak Elahi Khan recalled. “What I saw I can’t describe that … that’s terrible.”
More than 60 students, many of whom were between the ages of 12 and 16, were moved to a special burn facility, according to doctors at Uttara Adhunik facility.
