‘A loud bang and then screams’: witnesses recall horror as jet hits Uttara school

Fahim Hossain, an eleventh-grade student at Milestone College, witnessed the horrifying moment when a Bangladesh Air Force F-7 training aircraft crashed into his campus in Dhaka's Uttara this afternoon.

"The jet crashed right in front of my eyes – just 10 feet ahead of me," Fahim told The Daily Star.

"It hit the ground floor of a two-storey building around 1:15pm, where classes for the primary section were taking place."

He said the ground floor was severely damaged by the impact.

Rasel Mia, who identified himself as a staff member of the Air Force, said he arrived at the scene shortly after the crash.

"What happened inside the ground floor is beyond description," he told this correspondent.

Ariful Islam, a first-year HSC student, said, "I was in class on the seventh floor of a building, gazing out the window. Suddenly, I saw a plane crash into the first floor of the adjacent building, where junior students were attending class. The entire area was engulfed in flames with a loud bang, and screams began coming from the building. We hurriedly evacuated our building."

Multiple ambulances were seen entering and exiting the campus as emergency personnel responded to the incident.

Outside the gates, worried parents, guardians, and siblings of students waited in growing distress, desperate for information.

"I've spoken to my son over the phone, but I still haven't found him here," said one anxious father waiting near the entrance.

Abdullah Al Fahad, an eighth-grade student, said, "I'm a residential student here. After lunch, we were waiting for our coaching class. I was on the ground floor at the time. Suddenly, there was a deafening noise as something crashed into our building. When I looked, I saw a plane had fallen right in front of it.

Just moments earlier, we had seen a plane circling above the building. Two of my friends were with me -- neither of them survived. By the mercy of Allah, I have returned to my parents."

Students who managed to escape were visibly shaken. "You could see the trauma on their faces," said a witness at the scene.

The sudden crowd of onlookers added to the chaos, making it difficult for law enforcement to manage the situation. Members of the army and police were deployed to control the gathering and secure the area.

At least three people were killed and more than 100 injured after a Bangladesh Air Force F-7 aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone College in Dhaka's Uttara this afternoon.