Military accidents do and will happen. The Tejas fighter jet crash at the Dubai Air Show is one such incident, and it doesn’t warrant chest-beating or crying about national prestige.
In the aftermath, Shekhar Gupta has written a high-brow article. Unlike most of the reactive commentary that usually follows a very public tragedy, his analysis is measured in its critique, while still applauding efforts behind Tejas, both technical and human. This is really what the Tejas is all about—a solely Indian effort at making a frontline, modern, single-engined delta-winged combat aircraft. It’s brilliant, reasonably priced and has a stellar safety record in 24 years of flying.
Thirty-six years ago, Gupta had written another article—a gut-wrenching, sweat-inducing eyewitness account of an air show tragedy that involved a single-engined delta-winged top-of-the-line combat aircraft. The significant difference is that accident happened on Air Force Day at Palam Airport in Delhi. Gupta brought the reader close enough to hear the aircraft grunt under the strain of being flown far beyond the manufacturer’s limits. That is what aerobatic demonstration flying is about: man bullying the machine into submission, and making it perform beyond logical boundaries. Mastering a mean military machine in the skies.
Wing Commander Ramesh ‘Joe’ Bakshi, Commanding Officer of the newly inducted Mirage 2000 squadron, took to the skies on Air Force Day in 1988 at Palam Airport in what was meant to be the ultimate display of flying skills. He had the spirit and pluck to do just that. But as is the wont with warriors, he wanted to do even more than what logic defined or allowed. That’s what air warriors do: defying nature, evolution, and physics. So the reader who wants to hear the Mirage 2000 strain and groan, read Shekhar Gupta again.
On 21 November 2025 in Dubai, Wing Commander Namansh Syal pushed his Tejas the same way Bakshi had done. Like his predecessor, Syal willed his aircraft to defy manufacturers’ limits and recommendations, much like a reluctant horse struggles against the superiority of the rider in the saddle. The horse, a living being with a heart that beats with fear but has faith in the rider guiding the reins, performs actions evolution never prepared it for. The air warrior does that with a machine made for combat.
Sometimes the machine just gives up, unable to keep pace with the will of the military mind of the air warrior. For that military mind is stimulated by a defiance of limits, just as some do over water, some over land, and some crazies do in the skies. It wants more from the machine than it has been made to do, perform more than it is capable, incapable of matching the spirit of the air warrior. And so, then, the sky suddenly quietens, despite the roar of burning fuel and flying debris. That’s what happened in Palam 1989 and Dubai 2025.
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Warriors’ solidarity
Military accidents happen everywhere in the world. A tank shell may malfunction, an artillery barrel may fail, a mortar may fall short, a hand grenade pin may drop inadvertently, and a parachute may not deploy properly in the dead of night. All of this has happened before, and unfortunately, will happen again. Precautions are taken to extreme levels, and yet sometimes the machine fails the warrior. And the warrior accepts that risk, to jump from an aircraft with only stars providing light, firing tank rounds over undulating surfaces, or to defy the physics of aircraft design.
So, the reaction to Syal’s last flight has been telling—the uniformed fraternity clearly separated from the rest, sans borders. They know that a horse will buck, and the machine will buckle. AVM (retd) Manmohan Bahadur steadied the emotionalism with logic, while opinions from across the border and beyond embodied gentlemanly ethics and warrior spirit. Retired Pakistan Air Force officer, Air Commander Pervez Akhtar Khan, saluting the valour of Wg Cdr Syal, wrote touchingly, “All of us trying to touch something infinite before gravity reclaims us… The sky grieves without borders. Let us do the same.”
The US Air Force Viper Demonstration Team commander captured the sentiments of all warriors worldwide. After withdrawing from the air show out of respect for Wg Cdr Syal, Maj Taylor ‘Fema’ Hiester was scathing about the prevailing culture in Dubai, “The announcer was still enthusiastic, the crowd still watched the next several routines with excitement and when the show was over, it ended with ‘Congratulations to all our sponsors, performers and we’ll see you in 2027.”
“The show must go on, is what they always say. And they’re right. But just remember someone will say that after you’re gone too,” Hiester wrote on social media.
Manvendra Singh is a BJP leader, Editor-in-Chief of Defence & Security Alert and Chairman, Soldier Welfare Advisory Committee, Rajasthan. He tweets @ManvendraJasol. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)