A Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed during the Dubai Air Show 2025 while performing a manoeuvre on Friday at around 2 pm (Local time). The plane was piloted by Wing Commander Namansh Syal, who died in the crash.

Wing Commander Syal hailed from Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district. Jagan Nath Syal, the father of the IAF pilot, was scrolling through YouTube videos of the Dubai Air Show when he came across the clip of the crash, reported The Indian Express.

Jagan Nath last spoke to the Wing Commander a day before the crash. “I last spoke to my son yesterday. He told me to watch his performance during the air show on TV channels or YouTube. Around 4 pm today, I was searching for videos of the ongoing air show in Dubai on YouTube when I saw reports about the plane crash. Immediately, I called my daughter-in-law, who is also a Wing Commander, to check what happened,” the IAF pilot’s father told The Indian Express.