Indian Tejas fighter jet crashes in a ball of fire at Dubai Airshow, killing pilot

NEW DELHI/DUBAI - An Indian home-produced Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire at the Dubai Airshow during an aerial display on Nov 21, killing its pilot, and the Indian Air Force (IAF) 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.

The fighter had been flying at a low altitude at around 2.15pm before it went down, according to a witness.

It was the second known crash of the fighter jet, which is built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
and powered by General Electric (GE) engines.

The first crash was during an exercise in India in 2024.

The home-grown 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 former Soviet fighters.

The crash happened during the last day of the airshow, the Middle East’s largest aviation event, which started on Nov 17.

“A court of inquiry is being constituted, to ascertain the cause of the accident,” the IAF said in a statement.

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 roll-out 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 aerobatic displays making use of wide vistas of airspace.

Speaking to India’s ANI news agency in Dubai on Nov 17, 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 in 2025.

“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. REUTERS