A video of Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Namansh Syal - who died when the Tejas LCA Mk-1 crashed at the Dubai Airshow on Friday - has surfaced, showing him at the event with other dignitaries before the tragic crash took his life.
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He is seen in the video with Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth, India's Envoy to the UAE, Deepak Mittal, and Additional Secretary (Gulf) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Aseem R Mahajan. It is not known when the video was taken during the Airshow which started on November 17 and was scheduled to conclude on November 21.
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Wing Commander Syal, 37, died on Friday after the Tejas jet plunged on the ground, bursting into flames and smoke when he was performing a low-level aerobatic manoeuvre on the final day of the airshow.
{{/usCountry}}Wing Commander Syal, 37, died on Friday after the Tejas jet plunged on the ground, bursting into flames and smoke when he was performing a low-level aerobatic manoeuvre on the final day of the airshow.
{{/usCountry}}The video, which is making rounds on social media, shows the IAF pilot smiling as he poses for photograph with his colleagues, ministers from India and other dignitaries from UAE.
Watch video here
Grief in Wing Commander Syal's village
The IAF pilot's death on the day of the five-day airshow in Dubai, which began on November 17, cast a pall of gloom over his village in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra. As the news reached his native village, relatives, neighbours and locals began gathering at his ancestral home with shock and sorrow.
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He is survived by wife, who is also an IAF officer, a six-year-old daughter and parents.
While the IAF has said a court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident, defence expert Captain Anil Gaur (Retd.) told ANI that the incident might have occurred due to the pilot losing control or a blackout due to the g-forces induced by gravity. He said the exact cause of the crash can only be determined after the data from the cockpit is retrieved.
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Terming the IAF pilot's death as sad, Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor (Retd) said the incident has "shaken up the whole system" and said that a court of inquiry will investigate possible mechanical or technical causes.
“The ill-fated Tejas crash a little while ago in Dubai has actually shaken up the whole system... The reasons could be mechanical. The reason could be the malfunction of fly-by-wire or any control surface… The FDR and CVR would be extracted... At this stage, to speculate and to say what could have gone wrong is incorrect, and to have lost a brother in arms is very sad,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.