Bangladesh mourns 31 dead in jet crash as students protest to demand
accountability
[July 22, 2025]
By JULHAS ALAM
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — 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 on Tuesday, including at least
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 site in Dhaka’s densely populated
Uttara neighborhood while the military launched an investigation. The
country’s civil aviation authority was not involved in the investigation
directly.
Bangladesh declared Tuesday a day of national mourning, with the flags
flying at half-staff across the country.
Monday’s crash at the Milestone School and College caused a fire that
gutted the two-story school building. Officials said 171 people, mostly
students and many with burns, were rescued and carried away in
helicopters, ambulances, motorized rickshaws and in the arms of
firefighters and parents.
The protesting students demanded “accurate” publication of identities of
the dead and injured, compensation for their 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halt to the use of “outdated and unsafe” training aircraft by the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 became furious after two senior government advisers arrived
at the scene, forcing them to take cover for six hours inside the school
campus before additional security forces arrived and escorted them out.
Elsewhere in Dhaka, scores of students were injured after police charged
them with batons. The students earlier broke through security barricades
and entered the Bangladesh Secretariat complex, the country’s
administrative headquarters, and security officials used stun grenades
and tear gas to disperse them. They demanded the resignation of the
education adviser who, they said, delayed announcing that public exams
were being canceled during Tuesday’s mourning.
Many say they're haunted by the tragedy
“Yesterday, when the plane was approaching, the sound was so loud you
can’t even imagine — it felt like eardrums were about to burst. Within
five seconds, the plane crashed right in front of me here,” Smriti, a
student who only gave one name, said outside her school.
"Suddenly, I saw flames rising fiercely upward from the building,” the
11th grader said. “When I got here, I saw some children lying with their
limbs spread out, some of their lifeless bodies scattered around. Can
you save them? Tell me, will they ever be able to return to their
parents’ arms again,” she asked.
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Law enforcement officers stand guard at the entrance of the National
Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery as survivors are treated
inside after a Bangladesh air force training aircraft crashed into a
school in the nation's capital Monday afternoon in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 22, 2025.( AP Photo/ Mahmud Hossain Opu)
On Tuesday, 78 people, mostly students, remained hospitalized, said
Sayeedur Rahman, a special assistant to Bangladesh’s interim leader
Muhammad Yunus. Twenty deaths were reported initially, and seven
died of their injuries overnight, authorities said. Another four
deaths were reported later Monday, the military said.
Maherin Chowdhury, a teacher who rescued more than 20 students from
the burning school, died from severe burn injuries, her colleague
Tanzina Tanu said.
Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about two dozen
injured remained critical. A blood donation camp has been opened at
a specialized burn hospital where most of the injured were being
treated.
Twenty bodies have been handed over to their families, with some of
them possibly needing DNA matching after they were charred beyond
recognition. Many relatives waited overnight at a specialized burn
hospital for the bodies of their loved ones.
The plane reported a malfunction
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical
malfunction” moments after takeoff from the A.K. Khandaker air force
base at 1:06 p.m. 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 11-kilometer (7-mile) 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 remained unclear if he managed to eject before
the jet hit the building.
The first funeral prayers were held for the pilot in Dhaka on
Tuesday morning and second prayers will be held in southwestern
Rajshahi district where his parents live.
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.
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Associated Press video journalist Al-emrun Garjon contributed to the
report.
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