The sunny sky over Dubai, is a great location full of airshows and full of people watching and skipping high-paying luxury drinks as they watch planes perform incredible stunts in a airshows. One of the high-paying luxury attendants is a high executive, and everyone in the audience is distracted with a plane that they are watching. It is performing death-defying stunts, and everyone is distracted with the incredible show and watching the planes. When suddenly a plane veers out of control, and the audience and high executive leave distracted, and that’s when the plane showing is the Tejas and is supposed to be performing the shut down of the death-defying stunts. Suddenly, the plane Is spiraling out of control and entering a nosedive, jet´ on fire. Is the pilot able to get out? The audience leaves distracted on the show. Next we hear a heart stopping and deafening boom. It is a heart stopping moment and everyone is just watching a plane spiraling to the ground, a jet on fire, they are losing altitude, and no one knows where the pilot is. Boys turn to each other and scream, we are watching a broken Tejas!!
At 2:10 the audience is watching the Tejas, entering the aircraft with a heart stopping moment, and showing of fire burning off the plane, instantly audience know that something has gone terribly wrong. Tejas is supposed to be a heart stopping moment and turn death in to a heart stopping moment but that is not what the audience is going to witness during the final show, they are going to witness something they have never seen before a heart stopping moment and a final and permanent Tejas flight.
The eyewitnesses report an event that could be described from a nightmare. “One minute, it was doing graceful maneuvers like an eagle. Then it just… dropped. Like a rock,” stated mother Sarah Al-Mansoori, who was at the airshow with her young kids. Then the dust cloud got larger, the smoke was thick, it boomed like a thunderous explosion. There are chilling and grainy videos from social media with the Tejas mid maneuver, shining delta wings, and sunlight reflecting from them, but then, it all changed. It pitched, disappeared in smoke then cloud and within an instant, it slammed the ground. It was the runway. It was after a bright day; because suddenly, an explosion changed the day, the burning smoke blitzed the sunlight. The teenagers, facilitated by the teenagers and the staff with emergency light and sirens, repulsed the crisis. The emergency people got there in the ground to start countering the explosion, and that was made of plastic, but still, they were burned; and that was made of bright, plastic, and firm legacies of the earth. The explosion prepared with smoke, and rippled, screaming thunder; it was the end of the despairing and grainy day. in spite of the fact that no participants were burned, women were squeezed with kids and all the men were totally shocked; and the psychological things burned in all the families. and it made sorrow to all the families. The sight was horrible. There was a line of complete silence, and people could only make miserable sounds. The sight was terrible.
There is a feeling of terror when hearing one of these accounts. One of these accounts is from Sarah Al- Mansoori. She is a mother form the UAE who was with her kids at the show. She said: One minute it was soaring, twisting, and turning. The next minute, it just dropped. The smoke was thick and the boom was a thunder. One social media user who described the at over a micro second of the plane doing a maneuver where \its delta wings reflect the sunlight, and then all of a sudden, there is smoke. The last message from the plane tejas said the pilots fate is currently unknown. Al Mansoori recounts how she was present when a fetus dropped from a plane. Somehow, a pilot buzzed around closing the gap of fatal uncertainty. The world of high stakes flying continues to bring to light the ultimate and minute boundaries between control and catastrophe.
At the time of this writing, the IAF has made no updates, as rescue teams are still sifting through the wreckage. Meanwhile, the whole nation is praying for our pilots. These digital prayers are accompanied by the hashtags #TejasCrash and #PrayForOurPilot, which are trending, showing a digital vigil that merges national pride and fear.
This project started in the 1980s during a time of geopolitical unease. It took multiple decades due to delays, budget issues, and red tape. Eventually the IAF inducted their first squadron in 2015 after the project closed the distance between the critics. It was a “flying coffin” for a while in their early years. Now the Mark 1A variant works with fly by wire controls, has a glass cockpit, and has a strong enough armament for their enemies to seek peace which is a rare find in a nation with a six hundred dollar per capita income. It is definetly a “Make in India” project. Now India has is an exporter and is no longer a low income nation in the fighter jet world. With a top speed of Mach 1.6, the jet is highly agile and is one of the best in the world in dogfights. This powerful jet is a big reason India is making a name for itself in the world fighter jet market. It is highly likely and expected that India will sign deals with the UAE and Egypt, which is a big reason India is making a name for itself in the world fighter jet market.
However, what happened last week is not even the first blemish on Tejas’s excellent resume. A similar incident happened with the same aircraft in 2021 during tests in Gujarat, now it also did not have a fatality, but it did raise suspicion regarding the aircraft’s engine reliability. The GE F404 is a foreign engine that tejas, in a sense, is an indigenous body. GE F404 is also known to have its quirks during high-stress situations. These aircraft are not just flying. The maneuvers are life- threatening. They endure forces that can detrate the human body in seconds,Dr. Priya Sharma explained, a respected aerospace analyst with a long history at the DRDO. A fly-by-wire malfunction, a fuel system bug—shouldn’t explain the crash until the black box tells us its story. Tejas, with a top speed of Mach 1.6, can also outperform its rivals in dogfights. A true Make in Indiaproduct, the Tejas is now a fighter jet that India is even exporting. India is now in a unique position that it can go from being a fighter jet’s receiver to an exporter. Due to the ever-lasting demand for fighter jets, India is no longer a $100 billion market.
While the sun sets over Dubai and the airshow goes on, people in the industry stay hopeful. Back in Mumbai, and in the busy streets and tea houses in Nashik, people are talking in a mix of sadness and determination. IAF Vet Wing Commander (Retd.) Ajay Verma tweeted “our pilots are lions.” One crash, however tragic, does not quiet the roars of a thousand flights. International friends supported the UAE Boeing and Lockheed reps at the airshow and together the UAE pledged full support to the tragic incident.
Airshow in Dubai and the fall of the jet, Tejas, are currently in the headlines of many aviation magazines, illustrating the delicate balance of the industry. Will the crash leave the pilot in the rubble of defeat, or the defeat of rubble at the level of a hero? Will the crash leave secrets of a dream unreached or the secrets of a dream unreached? Will the dream of reaching the stars be fulfilled? No, the dreams to reach the stars will continue to be pursued. But in the industry of stars, a crash is not the end but a new turn in the story of aviation.
