As much of Bangladesh grieves over the tragic loss of lives in the July 21 fighter-trainer aircraft crash in Dhaka, questions related to the young Flight Lieutenant who was flying the aircraft and the Army’s initial version that he had died in the crash are giving rise to serious misgivings on several other issues.
Scores of soldiers reached the crash site within minutes of the crash which took place shortly after 1 pm on July 21.
Initially, the Army claimed that Flight Lieutenant Touqir Islam Sagar perished when his Chinese made, two-seater F-7-BGI fighter-trainer, for reasons that are still not clear, slammed into Milestone School and College at Uttara, killing – officially – 19 people and injuring over 50.
The jet took off from Old Airport, located at Kurmitola, before flying across Uttara, Diabari, Badda and Rampura.
However, later, as several videos surfaced of the crash site and agonised parents and guardians grieved over the loss of lives, the Army, which took control of the place long before Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) personnel could even reach the location, changed its narrative.
Indeed, several videos featured eyewitnesses claiming that they had seen the pilot ejecting from the aircraft and landing at a nearby building.
Subsequently, additional videos showed an injured Flt Lt Sagar being taken away in a wheelchair inside a building. It was later established that he was injured but alive.
Subsequently, Flt Lt Sagar, who belonged to the BAF’s 35 squadron, died while undergoing treatment in ICU of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
The Bangladesh Air Force may likely have retrieved the F-7’s ‘black box’ and flight data recorder (FDR) which will throw up vital clues about what happened in the air before the plane crashed into the school building.
There is no word on whether the ‘black box’ and the FDR would be analysed by Bangladeshi Air Force specialists or whether they would be examined for clues by the original manufacturers – in this case, the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation.
Whatever data is gleamed from the two equipment, some unanswered questions have begun to crop up.
- Could the total fatalities be more than the 19 that the Army set out on July 21?
- When did this particular aircraft take off before its ill-fated flight on July 21?
- Who flew that sortie? Was there one pilot or two?
- A Flt Lt should have outgrown flying a trainer and moved to fly regular fighter aircraft. So, who in Bangladesh Air Force authorised the F-7’s July 21 flight?
- What measures have been taken to begin analysing the ‘black box’ and FDR data? More importantly, does Bangladesh have the engineering and technical capabilities to undertake complex data analyses?
- What was the nature of injuries on Flt Lt Sagar’s body? Did they prove to be fatal? Was every effort made to save him?
- Will the BAF institute a Court of Inquiry (CoI) and proceed to find the true circumstances leading to the loss of the aircraft?
A central figure in the chain of events surrounding the F-7 and Flt Lt Sagar is his Commanding Officer. However, since yesterday, there has been a chorus on social media, seeking the resignation of Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan who took an early morning flight to travel to Istanbul on official visit.
A day after the tragic loss of lives, Bangladesh Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus’ office made a strange and wholly unwarranted request that sought donations from private persons. The money collected would be used for relief. But the interim regime appears to show no interest in paying compensation to the next of kin of those who perished in the crash.
