Day after, IAF says no plan to ground Tejas  

A day after a Tejas jet crashed at an airshow in Dubai, killing a pilot, top sources in the Indian Air Force dismissed speculation that the indigenous fighter jets would be grounded.

“No such grounding has taken place. All (Tejas) planes are cleared for flying," said the sources. The IAF has 36 such jets in its fleet.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains of Wing Commander Namansh Syal, who died in the crash, have been flown back to India. An IAF plane flew in from Dubai with the remains of the pilot to Sulur, Tamil Nadu, the home base of one of the Tejas fighter jet squadron. Sources in the IAF said the cremation was planned at the family hometown in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.

Wing Commander Syal was posted to the squadron at Sulur. The military leadership at the base and his colleagues will pay their last respects at an associated solemn ceremony. The mortal remains would then be moved to Kangra by the IAF for the last rites.

Wing Commander Syal was piloting a Tejas Mark-1 fighter aircraft at the Dubai air show and he died when the plane plunged to the ground while he was executing a low-flying manoeuvre called the ‘barrel roll’. The pilot tried to stabilise the jet, but could not eject in time. The ill-fated plane nosedived and erupted into a fireball on impact.

The Tejas Mark-1 plane manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is powered by the F-404 engine made by US company General Electric. The HAL delivered 38 jets in the first tranche, of which two have been lost. Another 180 jets of the upgraded variant of the jet, called Tejas Mark-1A, are on order with the HAL. Deliveries are yet to start.

A court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident. Sources said there could be multiple reasons for malfunction, including trouble in the fly-by-wire system, engine failure, or any control system malfunctioning. The IAF would be retrieving the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder.