Factbox-What is the Chinese-made F-7 jet that crashed into Bangladesh school?

A Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet on a routine training mission crashed into a college and school campus in the capital Dhaka on Monday July 21 after what the military said was a mechanical failure. At least 31 people were killed, most of them children.Here’s what we know about the F-7 BGI jet that went down:

What are F-7/J-7 fighter jets?
The F-7 BGI, which crashed soon after take-off, is a lightweight fighter jet, the final and most advanced version of China’s Chengdu J-7/F-7 family, according to Jane’s Information Group.The Chengdu J-7 is the licence-built version of the Soviet era MiG-21 and is used for training and limited combat roles. The F-7 is the export variant of 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 – the final batch of the manufactured jets.

Production of the jets

China manufactured the jets from 1965 to 2013, making it one of the longest-running fighter production lines there. 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 several countries still use the export variant.

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Widespread usage of F-7

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran and North Korea are among the countries that have used or still use variants of the F-7.

Pakistan is the largest operator of F-7 aircraft and has 66 of them, according to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Pakistan also has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, and used it to launch air-to-air missiles to bring down at least two Indian fighter jets during the recent conflict between the two countries.

Past incidents involving the jets

May 2025 – An Air Force of Zimbabwe pilot died when a F-7 crashed during a routine sortie in the Southern African nation.

June 2022 – A J-7 crashed into residential buildings in the Chinese city of Xiangyang in central Hubei Province, 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 Pakistani Air Force pilots were killed when a FT-7 aircraft, a variant of the F-7, crashed.

There have been a number of other incidents with F-7 jets in Pakistan that resulted in deaths of pilots.