An Indian fighter jet crashed during a demonstration flight at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, killing its pilot and sending a fireball and thick smoke into the air above Al Maktoum International Airport.
The aircraft was an Indian HAL Tejas, a lightweight indigenous fighter used by the Indian Air Force. AP reported that the plane went down at the start of a demonstration in front of spectators on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. Police vehicles, ambulances and a helicopter rushed to the site and sprayed firefighting foam to control the blaze. Onlookers in the grandstand, including families attending the closing day of the show, were left stunned as the plane appeared to lose control and dive toward the ground.
The Indian Air Force confirmed the crash and said the pilot sustained fatal injuries. It added that a court of inquiry would be formed to determine the cause of the accident. Emirati crash investigators also planned to look into what happened. The Dubai Media Office said firefighting and emergency teams responded quickly and were managing the scene on-site.
The crash came on the final day of a biennial air show that is one of the region's biggest aviation events. The same edition had already featured major aircraft orders from Emirates and FlyDubai. The air show resumed flight demonstrations roughly half an hour after the crash, with the Russian Knights flying overhead while emergency crews were still working near the wreckage.
The Tejas is important to India because it is meant to strengthen a fighter fleet under pressure from regional competition and delays in aircraft deliveries. India signed a contract in September to buy 97 more Tejas jets, with deliveries expected to start in 2027, and had earlier ordered 83 aircraft in 2021. Those earlier deliveries were delayed largely because of engine shortages linked to U.S. imports.
The day before the crash, India's Press Information Bureau had rejected online claims that a Tejas aircraft on display had suffered an oil leak. It said the liquid seen in footage was condensed water being drained as part of normal procedure in humid conditions. AP also noted that a Tejas jet crashed in Rajasthan last year, though the pilot ejected safely in that incident. The Dubai accident will now draw scrutiny not just because of the fatality, but because it happened in front of a large international audience at one of the industry calendar's most visible events.
The public crash scene also mattered because the air show continued soon after the incident, which can be jarring to spectators but is consistent with how large aviation events try to resume once the immediate fire risk is controlled. That same setting will now likely be examined by both Indian and Emirati investigators as they reconstruct what the pilot saw in the final seconds before impact.
The Tejas program itself gives the crash wider significance in India. The fighter is supposed to help replenish a fleet under pressure, and the recent procurement deals show how central it remains to India's plans. The fact that officials had already pushed back against oil-leak rumors before the crash only adds to the scrutiny now facing the program and its operating conditions in humid Dubai weather.
