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

By Reuters 21 November 2025, 5:52 pm

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Los servicios de emergencias acuden al lugar donde se estrelló un avión de combate HAL Tejas de India, durante una exhibición aérea en el Dubai Air Show, en el aeropuerto internacional Al Maktoum de Dubái, Emiratos Árabes Unidos, el 21 de noviembre de 2025. (Dubai Media Office via AP)

An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire in front of horrified spectators during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow earlier today, and the Indian Air Force says it is setting up a court of inquiry to investigate the cause.

Video from the site showed black smoke rising behind a fenced airstrip. Dubai’s government shares a photograph of firefighting teams dousing smoldering wreckage.

Jignesh Variya, 46, who was attending the show with his family, tells Reuters the fighter jet had been flying for no more than eight or nine minutes and completed two to three laps when it went into a nose-dive, before flattening out but continuing to lose altitude and crashing at around 2:15 p.m. (1015 GMT).

“I could see three different fireballs when it collided with the ground,” he says. “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 of the crash site.”

BREAKING: An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Air Show. pic.twitter.com/TvwUoe3juh

— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 21, 2025