‘I don’t want to stay here anymore, please take me home’ — little Ayan’s cry from the ICU after Uttara Plane Crash

The horror of the Uttara Milestone School plane crash still hangs heavy in the air. Among the many who suffered, seventh-grader Ayan is now fighting for his life inside the ICU at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery. His tiny body bears 45 per cent burns, and his fragile lungs—damaged from fire and smoke—are struggling to keep him alive. Amidst all this suffering, Ayan’s soft but desperate words to his family cut the deepest: “I don’t want to stay here anymore. Please take me home.”

His cousin, Rahib, stood outside the ICU  on Tuesday afternoon, visibly shaken. “Ayan’s 45 per cent burned. His airway has been severely damaged. Doctors had to put him on artificial ventilation. He’s in ICU bed number 14 now. We admitted him to the ICU around 10 PM last night. He’s the only child of his parents,” Rahib said.

Ayan’s mother, a banker by profession, was having lunch in her office canteen when the unimaginable call came. Her son had been rushed to the hospital. “She completely broke down and called us at home like a madwoman,” Rahib recalled.

When Rahib visited Ayan in the ICU this morning, the little boy weakly asked, “Where’s my mother?” Again and again, he kept pleading for orange juice. “But the doctors won’t allow it. His throat is too damaged to swallow.” Rahib’s voice trembled as he shared the heartbreaking moment. “He kept crying and telling me: ‘I don’t want to stay here anymore. Please take me home.’”

In another ICU bed nearby, Ayan’s schoolmate Jarif Farhan is battling even more severe injuries—80 per cent of his body burned. His father, grief-stricken, said, “I cannot even bear to look at my son’s burnt body. He was first admitted to Dhaka Medical and later transferred here. Now he’s struggling to breathe. Usually, he would come home by 2:00 pm after school. But after the accident, we got the devastating news. We were left in total shock.”

For Ayan and Jarif’s families, life has come to a standstill. In the sterile silence of the ICU, two young boys fight every moment for breath, for survival, and for the chance to one day say again: “Mom, please take me home.”

The devastating crash of a Bangladesh Air Force training fighter jet into the Milestone School and College building in Uttara has left the nation in mourning.

 According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), as of noon on Tuesday, 31 people have been confirmed dead, while 165 others are receiving treatment at various hospitals.

Among the deceased, 10 died at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, 1 at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, 16 at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), 2 at Lubana General Hospital, 1 at Uttara Modern Hospital, and 1 at United Hospital.

Of the injured, 8 are at Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital, 46 at the Burn Institute, 3 at Dhaka Medical, 28 at CMH, 13 at Lubana General Hospital, 60 at Uttara Modern Hospital, 1 at Uttara Crescent Hospital, 1 at Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital, 2 at United Hospital, and 3 at Kurmitola General Hospital.

The FT-7 BGI fighter jet, used for training purposes, had reportedly suffered mechanical failure before crashing onto the two-storey school building on Monday afternoon.

The plane had taken off from Kurmitola Air Base at 1:06 pm and crashed at 1:18 pm. Following the crash, fire engulfed the building, turning it into a scene of horror filled with smoke, flames, and the screams of terrified children and parents.

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