Dhaka crash: ‘A sound I’ve never heard

“It was like 30 or 40 thunderbolt falling from the sky,” said the 18 -year -old Zarf bin Hassan, whose voice is still shivering two days after the plane crashed.

“I never heard like this in my life – came from the sky. In a second divided, the fighter plane flew over my head and crashed into the school building.”

The Bangladesh Air plane fell from the sky and criticized the primary school building of the Milestone and College School in Dhaka on Monday, which represents the harshest flight disaster in Bangladesh for decades.

At least 31 people – many of whom were school students under 12 – were killed while waiting for them, heading to training lessons, or eating a quick snack.

AHNAF was stuck with his brown chocolate shirt and his black pants, and he was accurately attached, and he spoke with a friend under an umbrella in the 12 acres of university campus stadium from a school and a human teacher, in the busy Utara neighborhood. He says he was hardly 30 feet when the plane was placed in the building.

AHNAF fell instinctively on the ground, and his head prepared with his hands. When he opened his eyes, the world has changed around him.

“All I could see was smoke, fire and darkness. The children were screaming. Everything was chaos,” he told the BBC on the phone.

The Air Force said that, on a training flight, it witnessed a mechanical error shortly after taking off. The pilot, who was expelled just before the accident, died in the hospital.

“I saw the pilot go out,” Ahnf said. “After the accident, I looked up and saw the white umbrella descending. He penetrated a ceiling for another building. I heard it was alive after landing, until the water was asked. The helicopter came and took it away.”

With the spread of smoke and flame in school, the AHNAF instincts began. A burning shrapnel from the burning plane has hit his bag, sang his pants and burned his hand. “The atmosphere was very hot, but I threw the bag aside and ran for help.”

He ran towards the concrete corridor that separates the stadium from the two -storey primary school building. The plane was criticized in the gate, chose from six to seven feet on the ground, then tilted up, crashed on the first floor, and exploded. Two of the classrooms called Cloud and Sky became the zero of the accident.

Near the entrance, AHNAF saw the student’s body, torn.

“It seemed as if the plane had hit him before criticizing the building,” he said. “He was younger than us.”

The five campus, which is usually with students ’gossip, turned into a scene of fire, divided minerals, and screaming.

Amid smoke, AHNAF discovered a novice student whose skin has been shaved and his body was pulled out of the fire by a friend.

“His friend told me,” I can’t do it alone. Could you help me? “So I picked up the boy, put it on my shoulder, and carried it to the medical room.”

Another burning woman was. The children ran from the building that was stripped of their underwear, burned their clothes, and their skin is released in the intense heat.

“On the second floor, they were cut off and screaming students,” said AHNAF. “We opened a network to reach one of the gates, which was burning. The service of the army and the fire came and saved some of them.”

AHNAF, like many others, quickly takes over his life.

“We have helped control the crowds, and we kept people away from the fire. We have cleared the roads for ambulances and helped extinguish the service crews in withdrawing their tubes on the campus.”

At one point, he gave the shirt off his back – literally.

“One of the students had nothing on. I took off and gave him the uniform. I continued a stereotype with the rescue.”

But the weight of many small souls lost in school is something he says will be difficult to overcome.

One of them was 11 -year -old Wakia First Nidhi.

She was walking to school that morning like any other day. When the plane hit, her father was in prayer – barefoot ran from the mosque as soon as he heard.

Her uncle, Sayyid Billal Hussein, told me that the family spent the entire night searching for more than one of the hospital.

“We walked through the state of Utara, unable. One of them said that six bodies were in one hospital. On one morning, her father knew her – from her teeth and a problem in her eyes. But we still did not give the body.”

The pain of the child’s loss was only exacerbated by the bureaucratic maze.

Although their daughter is determined by the advantage of dentistry and a lens in her eyes, the family was told that the body will not be released without DNA tests – because there are many demands.

First, a police report had to be submitted. Then the father gave blood in the military hospital. Now they were waiting for the mother’s sample drawing. Hussein said: “We know it is it.” “But they still will not surrender the body.”

Wakia, the three youngest brothers, lived next to her uncle at the home of ancient grandparents in Diabari. Mr. Hussein said: “She grew up in front of our eyes – and she plays on rooftops, sitting under a coconut tree next to our house, and her sister’s daughter always prepared. She was just a child, and she loved the children.”

“I saw it on the previous day,” he said. “If this is not for that training after school, you will be alive.”

In the chaos and sorrow that followed the plane crash, moments of narrow escape and massive courage emerged.

One of the Bengali BBC mothers told how she gave her child’s money to Ttevin instead of filling lunch that morning. During the break, he went out to buy food – and avoid death without just knowing. “He is alive because I did not give him Tifen,” she said.

The other parent’s tragedy was unimaginable. Each of his children lost within hours. His daughter died first. After burying it, he only returned to the hospital to wake up from a short nap and was told that his young son, too, had died.

Then there was Maher Chaudhry. The teacher, responsible for the children in the classes from 3 to 5, helped at least 20 students to flee hell.

She refused to leave, continued to return to fire – until her body was burned more than 80 %. Chaudhry died as a hero, saving the lives of those young to save themselves.

For school staff, it is like living in a nightmare.

“I can’t work normally anymore,” said Shadoul Islam Toltol, a 43 -year -old Bengali teacher.

In the aftermath, the questions and confusion have moved about the tragedy scale.

The government has reported 29 deaths and more than 100 injuries, as seven victims are still unlimited. However, the public relations between the army services (ISPR) put losses on 31.

According to the Ministry of Health, 69 people were injured in the crash and rescue efforts – including 41 students.

Social media has stumbled with speculation about potential cover -up, and claims that the armed forces, Bangladesh, denied firmly. At the same time, the school teacher, Khadija Akhtar BBC Bengali The families reported that five people are still missing.

For eyewitnesses and survivors, the shock remains.

“I did not sleep for two days.” “Every time I look abroad, I feel a fighter plane comes to me. The screaming is still in my ears.”

Fighter aircraft and commercial aircraft often fly over the campus, which is located near Dhaka International Airport. “We are on the course of the trip,” said AHNAF.

“We are used to seeing public aircraft – but we never imagined that one would fall from the sky and strike us.”

However, the horrors of that day are chasing him unabated. The screaming, fire, and charred corpses of study colleagues and teachers rejects fading.

“When I close my eyes, it is not the darkness that I see – it’s smoke.”