In a major blow to India's much-delayed project for indigenous fighters as well as their export potential, a single-engine Tejas jet crashed during a demonstration at the Dubai Airshow on Friday afternoon. The IAF pilot, Wing Commander Namansh Syal, died in the accident. The Tejas Mark-1 fighter was on a low-altitude aerobatic demonstration sortie when it couldn't recover from a "negative G-turn" and plummeted to the ground, exploding in a ball of fire in front of a large audience at the Al Maktoum International Airport at 2.10pm, local time. Wing Commander Syal was from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and was posted at TN's Sulur IAF station. His wife is a retired wing commander. The couple has a daughter, who is seven years old.

This is the second crash of the lightweight multi-role Te

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