By Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: An Indian Air Force Tejas light combat aircraft plunged to the ground in a fireball on Friday afternoon during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow, killing the pilot and casting a pall over the final day of the Middle East’s largest aviation exhibition of military and commercial aviation.
The crash, the first in the 38-year history of the biennial event, occurred shortly after 2:15 p.m. local time in front of thousands of spectators, industry executives and military delegations gathered at Al Maktoum International Airport. Black smoke billowed above the fenced runway as emergency crews raced to the site.
The Indian Air Force confirmed the pilot’s death in a statement posted on X. “An IAF Tejas aircraft met with an accident during an aerial display at [the] Dubai Air Show today,” the statement read. “The pilot sustained fatal injuries in the accident. IAF deeply regrets the loss of life and stands firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief.” The air force said a court of inquiry had been ordered to determine the cause.
Jignesh Variya, 46, who was watching with his family from the grandstand, told Reuters the jet had been airborne for only eight or nine minutes and had completed two or three laps when it suddenly nosedived. “I could see three different fireballs when it collided with the ground,” Variya said. “Everybody in the crowd stood up there on their feet, and then maybe in around 30 seconds, the emergency vehicles rushed over to the location at the crash site.”
The Dubai government released photographs showing firefighting teams dousing smoldering wreckage. The Dubai Media Office said emergency teams had responded rapidly and were managing the situation on site. The airshow was paused for roughly one hour before resuming; later displays continued as scheduled.
General Electric, which supplies the F404 engines that power the Tejas, said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of the Indian Air Force Tejas fighter jet at the Dubai Airshow and extend our heartfelt sympathies to the loved ones of the pilot.” The company added that it stood ready to support the investigation.
Friday’s crash was the second involving a Tejas. The first occurred during an exercise in India in March 2024.The Tejas — the name means “brilliance” in Sanskrit, is India’s first fully indigenous fighter aircraft, developed over four decades by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to replace aging Russian-built MiG-21s. A single-engine, delta-wing jet, it is intended as a multirole light combat platform equipped with modern avionics, an active electronically scanned array radar and a range of air-to-air missiles including the Israeli Derby ER, the Indian Astra and short-range weapons such as the Russian R-73, Israeli Python-5 and British ASRAAM.
Despite its strategic importance to New Delhi’s drive to modernise its largely Soviet-era fleet amid rising regional tensions, the program has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. The aircraft made its maiden flight in 2001, but the air force deliveries began only in 2016. Engine shortages have slowed production; of 99 GE F404 engines ordered in 2021, only four have been delivered, with the company citing supply-chain disruptions after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In September, India’s Defence Ministry signed a $4 billion contract with Hindustan Aeronautics for 97 additional Tejas Mark 1A jets, with deliveries to begin in 2027. A follow-on order for 113 GE engines was announced earlier this month, with shipments scheduled over five years starting in 2027.
The Dubai Airshow, which opened Monday and drew hundreds of exhibitors including Chinese and Russian manufacturers alongside Western and Pakistani and Indian firms, is one of the world’s three largest aviation exhibitions, rivaled only by the events in Paris and Farnborough, Britain. Major commercial orders were announced this week by Emirates and its low-cost sister carrier FlyDubai.
Witnesses said jets were flying again by late Friday afternoon, but the mood among attendees remained subdued after the fatal accident. The Indian delegation continued meetings at its large pavilion displaying scale models of the Tejas and other domestically developed systems. As investigators begin examining the wreckage, attention is likely to focus on whether the crash exposes fresh reliability concerns for a program that New Delhi has promoted aggressively on the global stage. Export interest has so far remained limited.
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