Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam Sagar has just returned from a UN peacekeeping mission and has been absent from all combat training exercises for more than two years. Underprivileged Bangladeshi join the armed forces to make a living. Once an opportunity knocks, the military sends soldiers and officers in UN missions to earn a better salary than the government offers.
UN peacekeeping missions also create one major problem for the Bangladesh military, which is losing specialist skills as pilots and war fighters.
Sagar reportedly completed his first 100 hours of flight training during his cadet years in PT-6 aircraft.
He later served with the 15th Squadron, where he logged approximately 60 hours of flight time, before joining the 35th Squadron.
Flight Lieutenant Towkir Islam was flying solo for the first time on Monday.
The Bangladesh Air Force F-7 BGI training aircraft crashed minutes after it took off from AK Khandaker base at Kurmitola around 1:06pm due to a pilot error, said the ISPR Bangladesh.
A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school in the country’s capital city of Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring 164 civilians was solely contributed by pilot Flight Lieutenant Md. Toukir Islam, who has been absent from flying activities for two years.
More than 170 people were injured as the F-7 BGI training jet crashed into the Milestone School and College, in the city’s northern Uttara neighborhood.
The pilot, named as Flight Lieutenant Md. Towkir Islam, was among those killed as the plane hit a two-storey building, said the country’s military in a statement.
The jet had taken off from Dhaka’s AK Khandker Air Force Base for a training flight shortly after 1 p.m. local time, but crashed minutes later due to a mechanical fault, said the statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR). The pilot had attempted to steer the aircraft away from densely populated areas, it added.
Muhammad Yunus, the leader of the country’s interim government, offered his “deep condolences” over the “tragic accident”, adding in a social media post that the cause of the crash would be investigated.
The F-7 BGI is an upgraded version of the F-7, an iteration of the Chinese-designed J-7, which is modelled on the Soviet-era MiG-21.
“It’s a relatively new version of a very old plane,” said Jacob Parakilas, research leader for Defense Strategy, Policy and Capabilities at the European branch of the RAND think tank.
The last F-7 BGI came off the line in 2013, Parakilas told Global Defense Corp. The F-7 was designed as an interceptor aircraft, “which in general means that it’s optimized for high speed flight,” Parakilas said. But take-off and landing can be “less forgiving” than for aircraft with larger wings, he added.
“The fact that the base model is old doesn’t inherently make it unsafe,” Parakilas added.
As of early 2025, Bangladesh had 87 combat-capable aircraft, including several variants of the F-7 fighters, according to the U.K.-based defense think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
The country’s air force had 12 F-7 BGI jets, as well as 11 F-7 BGs and 7 F-7 MB aircraft, according to the IISS. Bangladesh also operates a handful of Soviet-era MiG-29 aircraft.
Dhaka’s military has close ties with China, and has carried out joint exercises with Beijing.
The IISS, in the 2025 edition of its annual review of the world’s armed forces, said Bangladesh had plans to boost its combat aircraft fleet, and had invested in its fixed-wing training aircraft.
Dhaka’s “limited military capability is focused on border and domestic security,” the think tank said.
The government has declared a national day of mourning for Tuesday, domestic media reported.
Muhammad Yunus, the country’s chief advisor currently leading the interim government in Dhaka, said in a statement: “The damage to the Air Force and Milestone School and College students, parents and teachers including others is irreparable in this accident. This is a moment of deep pain for the nation.”
Bangladeshi government advisor, Asif Nazrul, said: “Such a massive, catastrophic accident has never occurred in our national history.”
The European Union’s delegation in Bangladesh said it was “deeply saddened” by the crash, adding: “Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected.”
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