The Russian Knights aerobatics team performed the 'Missing Man' manoeuvre to honour Wing Commander Namansh Syal, the Indian Air Force pilot who was killed when a Tejas fighter jet he was flying at the Dubai Air Show crashed during a low-altitude negative G turn on Friday.
In a video shared on Russian social media platform VK, the Russian Knights called the Tejas crash "impossible to describe", adding that their aerial display on the aviation show's last day was in "memory of the brothers who did not return from the last flight".
A US aerobatic pilot posted on Instagram, saying the team bowed out of their final performance on the second day of the air show out of respect for Syal. Taylor "FEMA" Hiester posted on Instagram, "After two years of doing this job, that was a first for our team and it came just before our final performance of the season. Together and individually, we all quietly watched the aftermath unfold from a distance thinking about the Indian maintenance crew standing on the ramp next to an empty parking spot, aircraft ladder laid on the ground, the pilot's belongings still in his rental car. I suppose each of us contemplated their new reality that came in an instant."
Hiester added that the sense of normalcy at the venue after the crash served as a stark reminder that "the show must go on".
Spectators watched in shock as the Tejas fighter jet nosedived into the ground, sending a ball of black smoke and fire over Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport. Syal was to fly the aircraft for a duration of eight minutes as part of the demonstration at one of the world's largest aviation shows.
Syal was cremated at his ancestral village in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra on Sunday after his body was received at the Sulur Air Force Base in Tamil Nadu with full military honours. The IAF said the air warrior was a "dedicated fighter pilot" and a thorough professional who served the nation with unwavering commitment, exceptional skill and an unyielding sense of duty.
Friday's crash was the second accident involving the indigenous multi-role Light Combat Aircraft in less than two years. On March 12, 2024, a Tejas aircraft crashed near a residential colony in Jaisalmer while returning from the tri-services military exercise 'Bharat Shakti' in the Pokhran desert in what was the first accident involving the homegrown jet since it began flying in 2001.
