At least 16 people, mostly students, were killed Monday, July 20, when a training aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed into a school campus in the capital Dhaka, in the country's deadliest aviation accident in decades. More than 100 people were injured in the accident, with at least 83 undergoing treatment in several hospitals, the office of interim leader Muhammad Yunus said.
According to the military and a fire official, the Chinese-made F-7 BGI aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College, in the Uttara neighborhood, in the afternoon as students were attending classes. The military said the jet took off at 1:06 p.m. local time and crashed soon after, catching fire immediately. The cause was not immediately clear.
The interim government announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday. Grieving parents and relatives of the victims thronged the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute in the capital, local media reported. Many were trying to identify their children by their uniform and other belongings.
Yunus expressed "deep grief and sorrow" over the incident in a post on X. "The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers, and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable," he said. "This is a moment of profound pain for the nation."
The crash was the deadliest aviation accident in the country in several decades. The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.