Pilot killed; Second known crash of locally-built aircraft; Accident reflects poorly on IAF capability
Smoke rises after an Indian-made Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow. Moments earlier, the aircraft was seen losing altitude before hitting the ground. Photos: REUTERS
NEW DELHI/DUBAI:
An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire in front of horrified spectators during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow on Friday, and the Indian Air Force said it was setting up a court of inquiry to investigate the cause.
Footage from the site showed black smoke rising behind a fenced airstrip. Dubai’s government shared a photograph of firefighting teams dousing smouldering wreckage.
Jignesh Variya, 46, who was attending the show with his family, told Reuters the fighter jet had been flying for no more than eight or nine minutes and done two to three laps when it went into a nose-dive before crashing at around 2:15pm.
“I could see three different fireballs when it collided with the ground,” he 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.”
It was the second known crash of the fighter jet, which is built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and powered by General Electric engines. The first crash was during an exercise in India in 2024.
The homegrown jet, whose name means “brilliance” in Sanskrit, is seen as crucial for India’s efforts to modernise its air force fleet of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet fighters.
The crash happened during the last day of the airshow, the Middle East’s largest aviation event, which started on Monday. Flying had resumed later on Friday, witnesses said, with jets back in the sky above the show site.
“A court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident,” the Indian Air Force said in a statement.
GE said in a statement it was ready to support the investigation. “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,” a GE spokesperson said.
Dubai’s government said emergency teams were managing the situation on-site.
First manufactured in 2001 but dating back to studies first carried out two decades earlier, the Tejas was designed as a light combat jet to replace India’s fleet of Russian MiG-21s. The IAF expects to operate a fleet of almost 220 Tejas fighters and its advanced Mk-1A variants over the next decade after HAL completes the pending orders.
But the rollout of the fighter has been delayed due to slow deliveries of engines from GE, which has blamed supply chain issues faced after COVID-19.
“It is the first fully domestic Indian fighter that is not based on foreign designs,” said British-based defence analyst Francis Tusa, adding that export interest so far had been limited. “There is work on a Tejas Mark II,” he said.
India had been gauging interest from potential foreign buyers at the week-long airshow, a major arena for global arms and airliner markets and well-known for bold displays making use of wide vistas of airspace.
Speaking to India’s ANI news agency in Dubai on Monday, India’s Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari had said that the Tejas participated in the airshow previously and was expected to generate even more interest this year.
“We are expecting that the display this year also will cater to great expectations, not only for the local population but also for the visitors, to at least showcase the capabilities of the aircraft,” he said.
Dubai is the world’s third largest airshow after Paris and Britain’s Farnborough, held in alternate years, and among the most international with Chinese and Russian weapons represented, as well as aircraft from India and its regional rival Pakistan. The accident was the show’s first.
