What do we know about Chinese-made F-7 plane that crashed in Bangladesh?

Tragedy stuck Bangladesh on Monday after an aircraft belonging to the Bangladesh Air Force went down in Dhaka.

The plane, which hit a school campus in Dhaka’s Uttara area, left 19 dead and over 100 injured.

The jet, an F-7 BGI, was on a routine training mission when it went down.

It hit Milestone School and College around 1 pm. Several students were on campus at the time.

Rescue operations are ongoing.

The pilot, identified as Flight Lieutenant Mohammed Toukir Islam, has been killed.

But what do we know about the Chinese-made F-7 plane?

Let’s take a closer look:

What we know

It is made by C hina’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation.

It is said to be the most advanced version of the J-7G.

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It is often referred to as the ‘Grandpa fighter jet’.

There seems to be some debate over whether the craft was produced with Russian help or reverse-engineered by the Chinese.

However, it continued to export its advanced versions abroad.

It was specifically designed keeping in mind the requirements of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF).

It is said to be a ‘cost-effective, multi-purpose’ fighter aircraft.

Bangladesh signed a deal with China to deliver 16 such aircraft in 2011 in order to modernise its fleet.

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The aircraft were delivered in 2013.

The F-7 BGI is a newer version of the F-7BG fighter jet.

It comes with KLJ-6F fire-control radar.

This allows it to find foes at a distance of over 86 kilometres.

It can track six targets, and engage two simultaneously.

The F-7 BGI has a full glass cockpit with three multi-function displays and three multifunctional heads-up displays and hands on throttle-and-stick controls. These features allow the pilot to improve his situational awareness.

It can hit a speed of Mach 2.2 and is said to have a service ceiling of 57,420 feet.

Its afterburning engine generating 82 kN of power.

It has five hard-points –  to carry air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs, GPS-guided bombs, and drop tanks.

It can carry the PL-5, PL-7 and probably the PL-9 short range air-to-air missiles.

It can carry bombs and unguided rocket pods of around 1,360 kilos.

However, the F-7 BGI does not have the capacity to carry Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles.

It is said to be far more manoeuvrable than most MiGs and other similar fighters.

This is due to its J-7G2 airframe with a double-delta wing design – which allows excellent lift at high angles of attack, minimises risk of stalling and improves agility.

The F-7 BGI can also carry C-704 anti-ship missiles for maritime strike missions.

It can also use Chinese helmet-mounted sights for better target acquisition.

Experts say the F-7 BGI is primarily suited for short-range aerial combat and training – which is its main use in the Bangladesh Air Force.

A J-7 last month went down in Myanmar, leaving four people dead in a village.

The Myanmar Air Force attributed the crash to ‘technical failure’.

However, the Myanmar’s People’s Liberation Army claimed that it had downed the craft.

In 2022, a J-7 crashed into a residential building in China’s Xiangyang.

Thankfully, the pilot ejected before the crash and survived.

These developments, along with the performance of Chinese-made aircraft used by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, have raised serious questions about the quality of defence equipment produced by Beijing.

It is mainly used as an interceptor aircraft in various air forces around the world including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Myanmar, Namibia, Nigeria, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Bangladesh has 37 such aircraft, while Pakistan has 120 of these aircraft.

What happened?

The F-7 BGI took off for a training mission around 1 pm.

“The crash and the subsequent fire killed 19 people. At least 50 others were critically injured,” Brigadier General Zahed Kamal, Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told reporters.

He said that rescuers have recovered 19 bodies from the school compound alone while the rescue operation was underway.

Md Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus for the Health Ministry, said that 72 people were hospitalised with burns and other types of injuries.

He said that wounded people, mostly students, were being treated at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (NIBPS).

According to doctors, eight of the injured were in critical condition.

“The number of injured people being brought to our facility is rising,” a doctor at NIBPS told reporters.

In a statement, the defence ministry said that the F-7 BGI training aircraft took off at 1:06 pm and crashed into the college campus soon after.

The plane crashed with a big bang into a four-storey building of the Milestone School with a big bang and immediately caught fire, a fire service official said.

According to police, firefighting units, ambulances, and air force helicopters rushed to the scene soon after the crash.

A teacher of the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that security personnel were putting bodies in body bags to be taken to Dhaka’s combined military hospital from the damaged building, which housed classes from one to seven.

“Dozens of ambulances were carrying the wounded to nearby hospitals,,” she said.

The National Burn Institute in the capital said they were treating 18 people, mostly students, some with critical conditions.

The interim government has declared a one-day state mourning on July 22 when the national flag will be flown at half-mast across Bangladesh and its missions abroad.

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus expressed shock and sorrow over the casualties caused by the crash.

“I am deeply saddened by the casualties caused by the heartbreaking accident involving a Bangladesh Air Force jet at the Milestone School and College campus,” he said in a statement.

Fahim Hossain, an eleventh-grade student, said that the jet crashed right in front of his eyes – just 10 feet ahead of him.

It hit the ground floor of a two-storey building around 1:15pm, where classes for the primary section were taking place,” Fahim told The Daily Star.

With inputs from agencies