In the aftermath: A Bangladesh air force member inspecting the crash site a day after a training jet crashed into a school in Dhaka. — AFP
Hundreds of students protested near the site of the crash of a Bangladesh air force training jet into a school in the nation’s capital, demanding accountability, compensation for victims’ families and the halt of training flights.
The death toll from the crash rose to 31 yesterday, including 25 students, a teacher who died from burn injuries she sustained while helping others get out of the burning building, and the pilot of the training aircraft.
Firefighters further secured the scene of the crash in Dhaka’s densely-populated Uttara neighbourhood while an investigation by the military was ongoing.
The country’s civil aviation authority was not involved in the investigation directly.
Bangladesh, in shock after the crash involving its air force, marked yesterday as a national day of mourning, with the national flag flying at half-staff across the country.
Monday’s crash at the Milestone School and College caused a fire that left the two-story school building in Dhaka in flames.
Officials said 171 people, mostly students and many with burns, were rescued and taken from the scene in helicopters, ambulances, motorised rickshaws and in the arms of firefighters and parents.
The students protesting outside the crash site at the Milestone School and College demanded “accurate” publication of identities of the dead and injured, compensation for the families, and an immediate halt to the use of “outdated and unsafe” training aircraft by the Bangladesh air force.
They chanted slogans and accused security officials of beating them and manhandling teachers on Monday.
The students also became furious after two senior government advisers arrived at the scene, forcing the officials to take cover.
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical malfunction” moments after takeoff from the AK Khandaker air force base at 1.06pm local time on Monday, according to a statement from the military.
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 crash.
The Milestone school, about an 11km drive from the air force base, is in a densely populated area near a metro station and numerous shops and homes.
It was the pilot’s first solo flight as he was completing his training course.
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. — AP
