At least 19 people lost their lives and 164 were injured when a Bangladesh air force training jet crashed onto a college and school campus in Dhaka on Monday. The incident occurred after the aircraft encountered a technical malfunction shortly after takeoff, according to a military official.
The F-7 BGI jet, which departed at 1:06 p.m. from the Bangladesh Air Force base in Kurmitola, Dhaka, was conducting a standard training session when it experienced a mechanical issue, reported Lieutenant Colonel Sami Ud Dowla Chowdhury, the military spokesperson.
“The pilot … made a courageous attempt to steer the jet away from populated areas. Despite his efforts, the aircraft … collided with a two-story building of Milestone School and College,” he explained.
The pilot was among those killed in the incident, the military said, adding that a committee had been formed to investigate its cause.
An ambulance passes near the wreckage where an air force training aircraft crashed into Milestone College campus, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 21, 2025. (Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)
“When I was picking (up) my kids and went to the gate, I realized something came from behind … I heard an explosion. When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke,” said Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school.
The incident comes a little over a month after an Air India plane crashed on top of a medical college hostel in neighboring India’s Ahmedabad city, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.
