On 21 July 2025, a training aircraft took off from a Bangladesh Air Force Base in Dhaka at around 13:00 local time (07:00 GMT) and crashed soon after in the Uttara neighbourhood.
Images from the scene hours after the crash showed scores of emergency service workers sorting through charred rubble in an attempt to find survivors.
Authorities announced that an investigation commission had been formed to investigate the crash, but in the days that followed, hundreds of student protesters took to the streets, clashing with police as they demanded accountability over the disaster and changes to training flights regulations.
The committee’s findings, which it reportedly submitted to the government last November, have not yet been made public.
According to a copy of the full report obtained by BBC Bengali, it highlighted issues like Milestone School’s lack of compliance with building codes. It also found more than 600 buildings – including schools and hospitals – located near Dhaka’s international airport that had violated height restrictions.
The report also found that the pilot lacked sufficient flight training and proper ground supervision. And there was no technical fault with the aircraft, the report said – contradicting an early statement by the Bangladeshi Armed Forces that the jet had experienced a mechanical fault after taking off.
The Bangladesh Armed Forces did not respond to a request for comment.
“No one can give a guarantee that another plane will not fall onto this school in the future,” Mansur Helal, the husband of one victim, told the crowd during the memorial, referencing a recent BBC documentary on the committee report.
“This is truly a horrific situation. Every day around 2,500-3,000 students go to that school.”
Helal’s wife, schoolteacher Mahreen Chowdhury, had died in hospital from extensive burns she had suffered while rescuing students.
“The building in which this accident happened had only one door. How can there be only one door for 800-900 students?” Helal added.
Helal and others are calling for the government to release the full report.
They are also urging better government support for survivors undergoing treatment, as well as compensation for them and victims’ families – which was recommended in the investigative committee report but yet to be implemented.
