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Fighter crashes on house, six injured

BISHAWJIT DAS
A training aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) yesterday crashed onto a tin-roofed house in Uttara area of the capital, injuring six people including two babies. The lone crew, BAF Flight Lieutenant Ahsanul Kabir, however escaped unhurt as he jumped with a
parachute at the last moment.
The fighter F-7 MB plane crashed due to technical faults at Fayedabad, about five kilometres northeast of Zia International Airport.
As soon as the aircraft crashed at 11:57am a few minutes after takeoff, the one-storey house caught fire. Two adjacent houses were also
damaged in the crash.
The injured are Rowshan Ara, 30, her one-year-old daughter Albina and her mother Lily Begum, 50, Sajeda, 40, Asma Khondaker, 32, and her 18-month-old daughter Tua.
All of them were admitted to
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Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). Asma was later shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
The conditions of Rowshan Ara, wife of Al-Amin, and Asma, wife of Shamim Khandakar, were critical, hospital sources said.
Rowshan Ara received burn injuries and the others were injured when a wall collapsed on them.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a press release said pilot Kabir took off from Tejgaon Airport in a training flight a few minutes before the crash.
"Preliminaryinvestigations indicate that mechanical fault caused the plane crash," the ISPR press release said.
Witnesses said the plane fell on the tin-shed house, owned by Kuwait expatriate Humayun Kabir, and nosedived some 20 feet into the ground.
The ISPR press release said a four-member high-powered committee, led by a wing commander of BAF, has been formed to probe the accident.
WITNESSES ACCOUNT
"I heard a huge boom when I was working in my shop at about 12 noon. Then I rushed to my house," said electrician Mostafa, one of the five tenants of the house. "I found a burning plane in the middle of the house, which also caught fire."
"I managed to bring all the five members of my family out of the house safely," he added.
Hundreds of locals rushed to the house and poured water to douse the fire, said Jamal, a tailor.
"I saw Rowshan Ara, caught in fire, came out of the house and collapsed to the ground," said Osman Ali, caretaker of the house.
Rowshan Ara was feeding her daughter Albina and Sajeda was peeling vegetables when the plane crashed onto the house. Asma was giving a bath to her daughter Tua.
Eight vehicles of the fire brigade brought the fire under control by 3:00pm. Locals alleged the firefighters reached the spot about 40 minutes after the crash.
PILOT'S ESCAPE
Pilot Kabir jumped from the plane at the last moment but his parachute entangled with an electric pole, some 200 yards off the crash spot, said Jafar Ullah, an ex-army man.
"The parachute also caught fire, and I helped him get down," he said. Locals took Kabir to a nearby tea-stall and poured water on his burning suit. BAF OFFICIALS VISIT SPOT The air force officials rushed to the spot after the crash and started investigation.
"We are only observing the aircraft's condition and securing the locals from any further accidents," said one of the BAF officials at the spot. "Another team of the maintenance will come later to salvage the fighter plane," he added.
The BAF official also said it might take a couple of days to fully remove the parts of the plane.
As hundreds of people throng the area to see the plane, BAF officials made announcement asking the people to keep away from it as the plane still may have inflammable objects.
A firefighting unit was kept on duty in the area.
BACKGROUND
Since 1971, four training aircraft of BAF crashed and six people were killed in the accidents. Sixty-one people were killed in 10 air crashes in the country in the last 34 years.
A training aircraft crashed at a village in Banskhali upazila of Chittagong on July 30, 2002, leaving its pilot Flight Lt Adnan and three civilians killed and 10injured.
Another training aircraft of Parabat Flying Academy crashed on June 7, 2002 in Uttara killing its pilot Moklesur Rahman Sakib on the spot.
On February 27, 2003, a BAF
training aircraft crashed due to mechanical fault in Dhaka during takeoff from Zia InternationalAirport.