Teacher Sacrifices Life Saving Students in Jet Crash Inferno
Heroic Act Amidst Deadly School Disaster
A dedicated English teacher is being hailed as a hero for her ultimate sacrifice, bravely re-entering a burning classroom to rescue students when a military fighter jet slammed into her school in Bangladesh.
A Teacher’s Courage
Maherin Chowdhury, 46, repeatedly ventured back into the flaming classroom after an F-7 BGI Bangladesh Air Force jet crashed into the Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara area. Even as her own clothes caught fire, she continued her rescue efforts, her brother, Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, recounted to Reuters.
“When her husband called her, pleading with her to leave the scene and think of her children, she refused, saying, ‘They are also my children. They are burning. How can I leave them?’”
—Munaf Mojib Chowdhury, Brother of the deceased
Ms Chowdhury tragically died from extensive burns. She leaves behind her husband and two teenage sons. Her selfless actions are estimated to have saved at least 20 students, pulled from the wreckage by her own hands.
Devastating Toll and Public Outcry
The catastrophic incident claimed the lives of at least 29 people, predominantly children. The military attributed the crash to mechanical failure. The pilot, attempting to divert the aircraft from populated areas after the failure, was also among the deceased.
The tragedy sparked protests in Dhaka. Students, demanding accountability, gathered at the crash site and the federal government secretariat. They called for an accurate death toll, the decommissioning of aging aircraft, and an overhaul of air force training procedures.
Reports indicate that police used tear gas and sound grenades to disperse a protest at the secretariat, resulting in injuries. The government has stated it is collaborating with various authorities to compile a list of victims and has pledged to instruct the air force to avoid operating training aircraft over populated zones.
The F-7 BGI, the aircraft involved in the crash, is the most advanced variant of China’s Chengdu J-7/F-7 family, a design based on the Soviet-era MiG-21. Bangladesh acquired 16 of these aircraft between 2011 and 2013.