Bangladesh Air Force Jet Crashes into School; At Least 19 Dead

At least 19 people were killed and 164 injured as a Bangladeshi air force training aircraft crashed at a college campus in the capital city of Dhaka on July 21 after experiencing a technical problem shortly after take-off, a military spokesman said.

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DHAKA -

The F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm (3:06 pm Singapore time) from the Bangladesh Air Force base in Kurmitola, Dhaka, as part of a routine training mission, but encountered a mechanical failure, said the spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Sami Ud Dowla Chowdhury.

"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," he said.

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