Lt Col (retd) Shahed Kamal, 50, trainer of the Bangladesh Flying Academy and General Aviation Limited aircraft that crashed on the runway of Shah Makhdum Airport in Rajshahi on April 1, died yesterday while under treatment at a Singapore hospital.
He had sustained 80% burns on his body as the aircraft, a Cessna D152, caught fire after the crash, which killed trainee pilot Tamanna Rahman, 22, on the spot.
Sources close to Shahed's family said Shahed had been undergoing treatment at Singapore General Hospital for three weeks.
He had been referred to the hospital for better treatment, but there were little improvement to his condition before he succumbed to his injuries around 1:40am yesterday, his friend Rejwan Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.
The accident was caused by some technical faults in the Cessna, which forced pilot Tamanna to attempt emergency landing. The plane veered off the runway when it touched the runway and its front wheel broke off. A fire broke out immediately, killing Tamanna in the cockpit, but Shahed managed to get out of the aircraft, although severely burned.
The airport authorities rushed him to the Combined Military Hospital in Rajshahi, but then he was moved to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka via air ambulance on the same day.
Later, he was referred to Singapore General Hospital.
A Narail native, Shahed was a trainer at the flying academy, a government-run training institution, for a long time.