Angry students face Bangladesh officials as deaths rise to 31 due to plane crash
Hundreds of students demanded accountability, family compensation for victims and pauses in training flights in Bangladesh Air Force near the crash site at a school in the U.S. capital.
The death toll in the crash increased to 31 on Tuesday, including 25 students, a teacher who died from burns, suffered burns while helping others leave burning buildings and train pilots in the plane.
Firefighters further secured the crash site in Dhaka’s densely populated Uttara community, while an investigation by the military is underway. The country’s Civil Aviation Administration did not directly participate in the investigation.
Bangladesh was mourning National Day on Tuesday, with the national flag flying in the national half.
The crash at the landmark school and university in Dhaka caused a fire, throwing the two-story school building into flames. Officials said 171 people, mostly students and many burns, were rescued from the scene by helicopters, ambulances, motor vehicle cars, and firefighters and parents’ arms.
Students protesting outside the crash site demanded “accurate” publication of the identity of the deceased, injured, compensation for the family and immediately ceased the use of “outdated and unsafe” training aircraft from the Bangladesh Air Force.
They shouted slogans and accused security officials of assaulting them and manipulating teachers on Monday.
When two senior government advisers arrived on the scene, the students also became angry, forcing officials to cover up.
Sayeedur Rahman, special assistant to Bangladesh interim leader Muhammad Yunus, said 78 people, mostly students, were hospitalized on Tuesday.
Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about twenty injuries remains crucial. A blood donation camp was opened in a professional burn hospital, and most of the injured were being treated.
Twenty bodies have been handed over to their families, some of which may require DNA matching because they were burned. Many relatives are waiting for the bodies of their relatives in a special burn hospital.
Her colleague Tanzina Tanu said Maherin Chowdhury, a teacher who rescued more than 20 students from the Burning School, died from severe burn injuries.
The pilot’s first solo
The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical failure” after taking off from AK Khandaker Air Force Base at 1:06 p.m., according to a military statement.
The military said pilot Lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam paid for “transferring the plane from densely populated areas to more sparse locations,” the military said, which would investigate the crash.
The Milestone School is about 11 km from the Air Force Base and is located in a dense area near the subway station, with many shops and houses. This is the first solo when the pilot completes his training course. It is unclear whether he managed to pop up before the jet hit the building.
The first funeral prayer was held for pilots in Dhaka on Tuesday morning, and the second prayer will be held in the southwest of Rajshahi where his parents live.
This is the deadliest plane crash in the capital of Bangladesh in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, which ejected after discovering technical problems.
