
Bangladesh plane crash: What we know, what's the latest
Here's the latest we know:
What happened during the Bangladesh plane crash?
'Bangladesh Air Force's F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed in Uttara. The aircraft took off at 13:06 [07:06 GMT],' the Bangladesh military's public relations team said.
Local media reported that the plane crashed at about 1:30pm.
Videos emerged of the aftermath of the crash, showing a fire, as well as plumes of thick smoke rising into the sky as people watched from a distance.
The crash marks the deadliest aviation incident in Bangladesh since the 1984 crash of a plane travelling from Chattogram to Dhaka killed all 49 people on board.
Last month, an Air India passenger plane crashed into a medical college hostel in India's Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground. This incident marked the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade.
Where did the plane crash?
The plane crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College, a private school in the northern Dhaka neighbourhood of Uttara.
Footage shared online after the crash showed the point where the aircraft had crashed into the side of a building, leaving a gaping hole.
At the time of the crash, students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
How big is this school?
According to the information available on the school's website, there are 6,000 enrolled students at Milestones.
What kind of plane was it?
The F-7 BGI is a light, 'multi-role' fighter aircraft manufactured by the Chinese Chengdu Corporation.
Multi-role fighter aircraft are built to perform several 'roles' in combat, including air-to-air combat, aerial bombing, reconnaissance, and suppression of air defences.
The BGI was billed as the most advanced F-7 when Bangladesh bought 36 of them in 2022.
It had been upgraded according to Bangladesh's specifications.
What do we know about the victims?
At least 19 people have died and more than 100 have been injured, based on data from multiple hospitals.
Authorities have not released details about those who have died or are injured.
'A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital,' Bidhan Sarker, head of the burn unit at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, told the Reuters news agency.
What do the rescue efforts look like?
More than 50 people, including children, were admitted to the hospital with burn injuries following the crash, a doctor at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery told reporters.
An emergency hotline has been set up at the institute, Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh's interim government, wrote in a post on X.
Local media reported that several of the injured were transported to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) through air force helicopters.
The army, air force, police and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a paramilitary border security force, are working together on rescue efforts, local media reported.
Eight units of the fire service are working to contain the fire, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
What is the latest situation on the ground?
Yunus said the government is taking all 'necessary measures' in the aftermath of the crash.
He posted on his X account that the bodies of those who can be identified will be returned to their families as soon as possible.
Those whose identities cannot be immediately confirmed will undergo DNA testing, after which their remains will also be released to their families.
In another post, Yunus shared the emergency contacts of different rescue departments regarding missing school students.
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Al Jazeera
6 days ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Shoot them': Sheikh Hasina ordered firing on Bangladesh protesters in 2024
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Now they will use lethal weapons, shoot wherever they find them,' she said.. 'That has been instructed. I have stopped them so far … I was thinking about the students' safety.' Later in the call with Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the mayor of Dhaka South and a relative of Hasina, the former PM talks about using helicopters to control demonstrations. 'Wherever they notice any gathering, it's from above – now it's being done from above – it has already started in several places. It has begun. Some [protesters] have moved.' At the time, Bangladeshi security forces had denied firing on protesters from the air, but Shabir Sharif, an accident and emergency doctor at the Popular Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, told the I-Unit that shots were fired from a helicopter 'targeting our hospital entrance'. He added that doctors attended to student protesters with unusual bullet wounds. 'The bullets entered either the shoulder or the chest, and they all remained inside the body. 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Al Jazeera
7 days ago
- Al Jazeera
HASINA – 36 DAYS IN JULY
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Al Jazeera
23-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Bangladesh students demand accountability after deadly air force jet crash
Hundreds of protesters have rallied in Bangladesh to demand accountability after an air force fighter jet crashed into a Dhaka school, killing 31 people, including 25 students. The children, many aged under 12, were about to return home from class on Monday when the Bangladesh air force jet crashed into their school and burst into flames. The military said the plane had suffered mechanical failure. Students from the school and others from nearby colleges protested as two government officials visited the crash site on Tuesday, demanding an accurate death toll and shouting, 'Why did our brothers die? We demand answers!' Elsewhere in the capital, hundreds of protesting students, some of them waving sticks, broke through the main gate of the federal government secretariat, demanding the resignation of the education adviser, according to local TV footage. The protesting students called for those killed and injured to be named, compensation for families, the decommissioning of what they said were old and risky jets, and a change in air force training procedures. Police fired tear gas and used sound grenades to disperse the crowd, leaving about 80 students injured, Jamuna TV, a Bangladeshi station, reported. Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Talebur Rahman said he did not have information on the number of injured, the Reuters news agency reported. The students have several demands, said Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, from the site of the crash at Milestone School and College. 'They're asking the government to accurately list the name of the people who died and also those who are injured; they want an exact figure – the number of people who are in the hospital. They also want compensation and a public apology,' Chowdhury said. 'They also want the air force to get away from old aircraft and to change their training procedures.' The military said in a statement that 31 people had died and 165 had been admitted to hospitals in the city. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 68 remained in hospital, and the condition of 10 of them was critical. A statement from the press office of Muhammad Yunus, the country's interim administrator, said that the government, the military, school and hospital authorities were working together to publish a list of named victims. It also said the air force will be told not to operate training aircraft in populated areas. 'The nation is mourning' Rescue workers continued to scour the charred buildings for debris on Tuesday as distressed residents of the area looked on. 'The whole nation is mourning. This is something [that's] never happened in this country,' said Al Jazeera's Chowdhury. Some parents were inconsolable. Abul Hossain broke down as he spoke about his nine-year-old daughter, Nusrat Jahan Anika, killed in the crash. 'I took her to school yesterday morning like every day. I had no idea it would be the last time I would be seeing her,' Hossain told Reuters. She was buried on Monday night. Rubina Akter said her son Raiyan Toufiq had a miraculous escape after his shirt caught fire when he was on a staircase. 'He sprinted to the ground floor and jumped on the grass to douse it,' Akter told Reuters. 'He tore his shirt and vest inside, which saved him from severe burns.' Smriti, an 11th-grade student at the school, told The Associated Press news agency that her eardrums felt they were 'about to burst' when the plane crashed. 'I saw some children lying with their limbs spread out, some of their lifeless bodies scattered around. Can you save them? Tell me, will they ever be able to return to their parents' arms again?' she asked. The jet had taken off from a nearby airbase on a routine training mission, the military said. After experiencing mechanical failure, the pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from populated areas, but it crashed into the school campus. The pilot, flight lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, was among those killed. It was his first solo flight as he was completing his training. The incident comes as neighbour India is still grappling with the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade after an Air India plane crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad last month, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground.