NEW DELHI: A ‘made in India’ Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow on Friday, killing the pilot in front of horrified spectators.

Following the incident, the Indian Air Force said it was setting up a court of inquiry to investigate the cause.

Video from the site showed black smoke rising behind a fenced airstrip, and Dubai’s government shared a photograph of firefighting teams dousing the smouldering wreckage.

This was the second known crash of the single-engine, 4.5-generation fighter jet, which is built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and powered by General Electric engines. The first crash came during an exercise in India in 2024.

“A court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident,” the Indian Air Force said in a statement, which also confirmed the death of the sole pilot.

Experts stressed it was too early to say what caused the crash. GE said in a statement it was ready to support the investigation.

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 when it went into a nosedive. He said it flattened out but continued to lose altitude, crashing at around 2:15pm.

“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.”

Flying resumed later on Friday, witnesses said, with jets back in the sky above the show site.

The crash came on the final day of the Middle East’s largest aviation event and was the first on record for the Dubai Airshow.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2025