The pilot valiantly tried to steer the aircraft clear of crowded regions. Despite his efforts, the plane ended up colliding with a two-storey building associated with Milestone School and College,” he mentioned.

Videos of the aftermath of the crash showed a big fire near a lawn emitting a thick plume of smoke into the sky as crowds watched from a distance.

Shahbul, whose daughter is among the missing students, weeps after a Bangladesh Air Force training plane crashed on a school campus shortly after departure in Dhaka. Source: AAP / Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP

Firefighters sprayed water on the mangled remains of the plane, which appeared to have rammed into the side of a building, damaging iron grills and creating a gaping hole in the structure, footage filmed by Reuters showed.