An Indian fighter aircraft, the indigenously developed Tejas, crashed during a demonstration flight at the Dubai Air Show on Friday. A fireball was seen immediately after the aircraft impacted the ground, with thick black smoke rising from the site of the incident. In a post on X, the Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the death of the pilot in the incident. This is not the first time an IAF jet has been destroyed in an accident. Here’s a list of crashes reported over the past five years. 2020 February 23: MiG-29K An IAF MiG-29k crashed off the coast of Goa, The Times of India reported, quoting an Indian Navy spokesperson. The aircraft had been on a routine training sortie. An image of an Indian Air Force MiG-29K. — Photo courtesy The Times of India/File 2021 March 17: MiG-21 Bison An IAF pilot was killed when his MiG-21 Bison aircraft crashed in central India. Group Captain A Gupta had taken off for a combat training mission from an airbase before he experienced the fatal accident, an IAF statement said. It ad...
An Indian fighter aircraft, the indigenously developed Tejas Mk1A, crashed during a demonstration flight at the Dubai Air Show on Friday. The jet, developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), crashed at about 2:10pm local time. According to the Indian Air Force (IAF), the pilot of the jet died in the crash. Here are some facts about New Delhi’s indigenous fighter aircraft. Made in India The LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas is a 4.5-generation multirole, single-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed to perform air and ground combat roles, according to its manufacturer HAL. It is currently operated by India’s navy and air force. The Tejas Mk1A, which was involved in today’s accident, features a delta-wing configuration and is powered by an American General Electric F404-GE-IN20 turbofan engine. The jet, named after the Sanskrit word for “radiance”, reportedly carries an Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system and, with eight hardpoints, can fit a variety of weapons ranging fro...