At least 16 people, mostly students, were killed on Monday when a training aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed into a school campus in the capital Dhaka.
More than 100 people were also injured in the accident, with at least 83 undergoing treatment in several hospitals, the office of interim leader Muhammad Yunus said.
The jet crashed onto the campus of the Milestone School and College in the city’s Uttara area in the afternoon, where children were present.
Television footage showed fire and smoke billowing from the site of the crash as bystander are seeing trying put out the flames.
Other clips circulating on social media show crowds of students fleeing from the scene in a panic.
The Bangladesh Army’s public relations office confirmed in a brief statement that the downed F-7 BGI aircraft belonged to the Air Force.
Yunus added that ‘necessary measures’ would be taken to investigate the cause of the accident and ‘ensure all kinds of assistance’.
‘The loss suffered by the Air Force…students, parents, teachers and staff, and others in this accident is irreparable,’ he said.
Local newspaper Prothom Alo said that initial reports indicated the plane had crashed onto the roof of the college canteen.
The incident comes a little over a month after an Air India plane crashed on top of a medical college hostel in neighbouring 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.
A preliminary report into the crash found that fuel switches for the engines of the doomed Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust and sink down moments after setting of to London from the Indian city on June 12.
In the flight’s final moments, one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel.
‘The other pilot responded that he did not do so,’ the report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said.
It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight’s captain and which by the first officer, nor which pilot immediately transmitted the distress call: ‘Thrust not achieved… falling… Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’
Seconds later the jet began losing height and exploded into a fireball after smashing into a hostel on the ground in Gujarat, claiming the lives of all but one passenger on board and 19 people on the ground.
Investigators’ early assessments indicate no apparent fault with the Boeing or its engines, suggesting that Boeing and engine maker GE had no apparent responsibility for the accident.
But the report does not say how the switch – which is used to start or shut down the engines and are typically left on during flight – could have flipped to the cutoff position.
‘Did they move on their own or did they move because of the pilots?’ he asked. ‘And if they were moved because of a pilot, why?’
The report said the jet was carrying 54,200kg of fuel, which was within the ‘allowable limits’.
‘The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,’ the report said.
‘The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off.
Referring to data recovered from the plane’s two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFR), it continues: ‘As per the EAFR, the Engine 1 fuel cutoff switch transitioned from CUTOFF to RUN at about 08:08:52 UTC. The APU Inlet Door began opening at about 08:08:54 UTC, consistent with the APU Auto Start logic.
Thereafter at 08:08:56 UTC the Engine 2 fuel cutoff switch also transitions from CUTOFF to RUN.
‘When fuel control switches are moved from CUTOFF to RUN while the aircraft is inflight, each engine’s full authority dual engine control (FADEC) automatically manages a relight and thrust recovery sequence of ignition and fuel introduction.’
