At least 19 killed and dozens injured after Bangladesh jet hits school

At least 19 people were killed and 164 injured when a Bangladesh Air Force training jet crashed into a college and school campus in the capital Dhaka on Monday.

The F-7 BGI jet took off at 1.06pm (5.10pm AEST) from the Bangladesh Air Force base in the neighbourhood of Kurmitola, as part of a routine training mission, but encountered a mechanical failure, according to a military spokesperson.

Firemen check the wreckage of a Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft that crashed onto a school campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Credit: AP

“The pilot ... made a valiant attempt to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas. Despite his best efforts, the aircraft ... crashed into a two-storey building belonging to Milestone School and College,” Lieutenant Colonel Sami Ud Dowla Chowdhury said.

The pilot was among those killed in the incident, the military said, adding that a committee had been formed to investigate the cause of the crash.

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

Footage filmed by Reuters shows firefighters spraying 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.

Volunteers cordon off the area following the crash.Credit: AP

Images from the scene also showed people screaming and crying as others tried to comfort them.

“When I was picking (up) my kids and went to the gate, I realised something came from behind ... I heard an explosion. When I looked back, I only saw fire and smoke,” Masud Tarik, a teacher at the school, said.

Some of the victims were taken to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. “A third-grade student was brought in dead, and three others, aged 12, 14 and 40, were admitted to the hospital,” Bidhan Sarker, head of the hospital’s burn unit, said.

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The tragedy comes weeks after a UK-bound Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college shortly after take-off in India’s Ahmedabad city on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

According to defence and security open-source website Jane’s Information Group, the air force jet involved in Monday’s crash was the most advanced variant in China’s Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family.

Bangladesh signed a contract for 16 aircraft in 2011 and deliveries were completed by 2013. The Chengdu F-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet MiG-21.

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