Another F-7 Goes Down

Air Force fighter aircraft F-7 crashes killing pilot at Ghatail

DHAKA, Bangladesh, April 8 (BSS)-A F-7 fighter aircraft of Bangladesh
Air Force was crashed due to mechanical fault at Paharipara village under Dhalpur union of Ghatail in Tangail district at about 12.30 pm killing pilot Squadron Leader Morshed Hassan.

Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman soon after the incident visited the spot and gave necessary directives to the rescue authorities, said an ISPR press release.

A high level 3-member committee was formed to investigate into the accident.

The ISPR press release said, the fighter plane crushed at about 12.30 pm when it was returning after completing successful firing training from Rasulpur Firing Range. The aircraft left the Air Force base of Kurmitola at 11.46 am.

The pilot managed to jump out from the aircraft with parachute immediately after the accident, but only to land on a roof of a teen-shade house.

Getting information of the incident, a search and rescue helicopter with medical and technical team rushed to the spot and recovered the pilot in senseless condition and admitted him to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka. But, pilot Morshed Hassan succumbed to his injuries at the CMH.

Initially, it was assumed that the accident took place due to mechanical fault.

Born on June 15 of 1979, Squadron Leader Morshed Hassan was commissioned in the Bangladesh Air Force on December 6, 1998 and proved himself as a skilled pilot.

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Courtesy: BSS

Image Shows a Demonstration of Martin-Baker Ejection System at 0 ft. Altitude

Fighter jets of Bangladesh Air Forces are all well equipped with the Martin-Baker Ejection System instead of the built-in safe ejection apparatus (if there is one). These ejection system costs more than $150000 that is more than 10 million taka in Bangladesh. Martin Baker is recognized as one of the most secured ejection systems that can be utilized even in the 0 ft. altitude that means from a grounded jet. At least the demonstration of this system shows a pilot can eject from his ship that is parked beside a runway in an air field that was filmed in 1964.

This information leads us to confusions that what really happened to our aviator Sq.Lr. Morshed Hassan, the tragic hero. Experts, considering situation after the pilot decided to bail out, that, the altitude of the jet was too low for a safe bail out utilizing Martin-Baker ejection facilities. One reason can be that the jet was going down at a tremendous high speed that the Martin-Baker facility that throws the bailed out pilot up to the cockpit, didn’t help Sq.Lr. Morshed Hassan.

An F-7MG. The jet Sq.Lr. Morshed had was F-7MB. Bangladesh Air Forces initially bought 47 F-7MBs whereas only 22 now remain okay. Its producer China herself has ceased the production in 2006 and has now send some models to her air museums, as the photo below is of an F-7MG (Chinese Chengdu J-7) which is on display in a museum.

Moreover this is assumed that his fall over the tin-shade has been a free fall due to his faulty parachute. It does mean that whatever altitude he had during the ejection, he has fallen over the tin shade just like a projectile at full velocity along with the gravitational acceleration from that very height. It’s considered that this is quite earlier to make final decisions about what really happened to our aviator. There has been made a committee of 3 members who will investigate through this whole tragic accident that happened to our pilot Sq.Lr. Morshed Hassan. This has been a real sad day for Bangladesh especially for the Air Forces.