On Monday, a Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet on a routine training mission crashed into a college and school campus in the capital, Dhaka. The military said the cause was a technical failure. The crash killed at least 31 people, most of them children.
Here is what we know about the F-7 BGI jet that went down:
What is the F-7/J-7 Fighter Jet?
According to Jane's Information Group, the F-7 BGI that crashed shortly after takeoff is a lightweight fighter jet, and it is the final and most advanced version of China's Chengdu J-7/F-7 family of aircraft.
The Chengdu J-7 is a license-built version of the Soviet-era MiG-21, used for training and limited combat roles. The F-7 is the export variant of the J-7.
The South Asian country's air force has operated F-7 variants since the 1980s. Dhaka signed a contract for 16 BGI version aircraft in 2011, and deliveries were completed by 2013 – this was also the final batch of this aircraft line to be produced.
Production
China manufactured this aircraft from 1965 to 2013, making it one of the longest-running fighter production lines in the country. Due to its affordability, the jet was widely exported, especially to developing nations.
The J-7 was fully decommissioned from the Chinese military by the end of 2023, but many countries still use the export variant.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, and North Korea are among the countries that have used or still use variants of the F-7.
According to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Pakistan is the largest operator of F-7 aircraft with 66 jets.
Pakistan also possesses one of China's most advanced warplanes, the J-10, and has used it to launch air-to-air missiles, shooting down at least two Indian fighter jets in a recent conflict between the two countries.
Past Incidents
May 2025: A pilot from the Air Force of Zimbabwe was killed when an F-7 crashed during a routine sortie in the southern African nation.
June 2022: A J-7 crashed into residential buildings in the city of Xiangyang, Hubei province, China, killing at least one person on the ground.
May 2022: Two Iranian pilots died after their F-7 crashed during a training mission near Anarak, 200 km (125 miles) east of the city of Isfahan.
January 2022: Two pilots from the Pakistan Air Force were killed when an FT-7 aircraft, a variant of the F-7, crashed.
Additionally, there have been several other accidents involving F-7 jets in Pakistan that resulted in the deaths of pilots.