Latest news with #militaryjet
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Hundreds attend anti-racism gathering in Tallaght, Dublin
At least 19 people have been killed, with dozens more injured, after a military jet crashed into a college campus in Bangladesh. Video: Reuters
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Kellie Harrington joins fight to save Portland Row games pitch
At least 19 people have been killed, with dozens more injured, after a military jet crashed into a college campus in Bangladesh. Video: Reuters
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Bangladesh jet crash: military aircraft accident kills 31, including 25 school children
A Bangladesh Air Force jet slammed into the Milestone School and College in the capital city Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 31 people - including 25 children, most very young. Some 165 were left injured, the armed forces public relations directorate (ISPR) said Tuesday. This is the country's deadliest air incident in recent memory. Here is a look at what happened. How did the crash occur? The fighter aircraft took off at 1:06 pm local time from the air force base in Dhaka's Kurmitola for a routine training mission. But it experienced a mechanical failure soon after. The pilot attempted to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas to minimise civilian casualties and damage, but his efforts were unsuccessful and the jet crashed into a building. Where did the plane go down? The two-storey building that the plane rammed into belonged to the Milestone School and College in Dhaka's Diabari area, located about 10km (6 miles) from the air force base. Visuals from the scene showed the aircraft's mangled remains dented into the side of the building, dismantling its iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure. Mohammed Russell shows a cellphone photo of his nephew, Md Ashikur Rahman Umair, who died when a military training jet crashed into an educational institution in Dhaka on July 23, 2025. Photo: AFP How many people were killed and injured? The bodies of at least 27 people, including 25 children, a teacher, and the jet's pilot, were pulled out from the debris on Monday. By Tuesday, the death toll had reached 31, including those who succumbed to injuries. More than 165 people were injured, with an on-duty doctor at Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital saying most were aged between 10 and 15 years old. Which aircraft was involved? The jet was an F-7 fighter aircraft - the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Bangladesh had signed a contract in 2011 for 16 such planes, and deliveries were completed by 2013. Bangladeshi students shout slogans and hold placards near the crash site. Photo: EPA How has the country reacted? The Bangladesh Air Force formed a high-level investigation committee to probe the cause of the accident. Flags flew at half mast across the country in a day of mourning for the victims on Tuesday. Hundreds of students gathered to demand answers. Witnesses were still visibly shaken by the horror they had seen the day before. Bangladesh's interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday that, 'I have no words. I don't know how to begin.' 'None of us ever imagined it. It wasn't within anyone's expectations. But we had to suddenly accept this unbelievable reality,' Yunus said in a video message. 'What answer can we give to their parents? What can we possibly say to them? We can't even answer ourselves,' he said. Additional reporting by CNN
CNN
22-07-2025
- CNN
Distraught students demand answers after plane crash turned Bangladesh school into ‘death trap'
Hundreds of students gathered outside the smoldering remains of a school in the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday to demand answers after a military jet slammed into the campus, killing dozens of children. An ordinary school day turned into terror on Monday when a Bangladesh Air Force jet suffered a mid-air mechanical fault and ploughed into the Milestone School and College in Dhaka, engulfing the two-story building in flames and smoke. Young students were finishing up afternoon classes and parents had gathered outside the gates to greet their children when the aircraft hit, killing at least 31 people - including 25 children - in the country's deadliest air incident in recent memory. Some 165 others were left injured, according to the armed forces public relations directorate (ISPR), many with severe burns. That most of the dead and injured are young children has compounded the tragedy that shocked the nation of 171 million people and sent the country into national mourning. As police and air force personnel worked at the scene to retrieve parts of the crashed plane on Tuesday, the gathered crowd began shouting at officials, with some students telling CNN they believe the death toll may be higher than officially released. The government has denied it is withholding information about the casualties of the crash, state media BSS News reported, citing the Chief Adviser's press wing. It added that the identities of those killed are still being verified. At the crash site on Tuesday, witnesses were still visibly shaken by the horror they had seen the day before. 'We saw scattered parts of different bodies, of children, guardians,' Mohammad Imran Hussein, a lecturer in the school's English department, told CNN. 'I cannot express everything in words,' he said, emotionally distressed and struggling to speak. Hussein said he was in a school building across the playground when the jet crashed. 'The sound was really intolerable. And I looked around to see what happened, I saw the tail of the plane. I saw a huge flame of fire,' he said. Milestone College has a kindergarten, an elementary school and a high school on its campus. The building destroyed in the crash was one of about 20 housing almost 100 students between the ages of six and 13, Hussein said. 'It's like this building was turned into a death trap. It was horrible, totally horrible,' said Sheik Rameen, 21, a student at the high school. 'I saw a lot of children, I tried to save their lives,' he told CNN at the site. 'I saw a burnt child seek help but nobody came to help them.' The FT-7 jet was on a routine training mission when it crashed soon after take off at around 1:18 p.m. local time on Monday (3:18 a.m. EST) after a mechanical fault, according to BSS News, citing the country's armed forces. The plane's pilot, who has been named as Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam, made 'every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,' the military said. The F-7 BGI is the final and most advanced variant in China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to Jane's Information Group. Reuters reported that Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. Images from the crash site showed parts of the mangled wreckage of the jet lodged into the side of the scorched school as emergency crews continued their operations. Following the crash, emergency crews and families rushed the injured to hospitals in the capital where doctors raced to treat severe burns caused by the inferno. The hospitals quickly became overwhelmed with frantic relatives desperate for news of their loved ones. Most of the injured at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burns unit are children under the age of 12, resident surgeon Harunur Rashid told Reuters. Video shows crowds waiting outside the hospital and waiting rooms packed with anxious families. Bangladesh's interim government leader Muhammad Yunus said on Monday that, 'I have no words. I don't know how to begin.' 'None of us ever imagined it. It wasn't within anyone's expectations. But we had to suddenly accept this unbelievable reality,' Yunus said in a video message. Yunus said the training aircraft 'crashed and fell upon these innocent children' and many were 'burned to death in the fire.' 'What answer can we give to their parents? What can we possibly say to them? We can't even answer ourselves,' he said. CNN's Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting.
New York Times
21-07-2025
- New York Times
Tuesday Briefing: A Deadly Jet Crash in Bangladesh
A Bangladeshi military jet crashed into a school At least 20 people were killed and 171 wounded when a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed yesterday into a school in Dhaka, officials said. The military said that a mechanical error had caused the crash. The crash occurred at Milestone School and College in an area north of Dhaka's international airport and a military air base. The school has students from elementary to high school grades. An aide to Muhammad Yunus, the leader of the interim government, said that most of the wounded were children and that 25 were in critical condition. Details: The jet took off from an air base and then crashed into the second floor of the school where third and fourth graders were. An initial report indicated that the pilot, who the military said died in the crash, had tried to maneuver the plane to a less populated area. Quotable: 'I saw the windows of the aircraft shattered, and it was burning up in flames, with black smoke rising into the sky,' Emon Islam, a high school student who had been nearby, said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
