The tragic crash of fighter plane Tejas during the Dubai Air Show on Friday left people in utter shock. Indian Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Namansh Syal died in the crash, that was supposed to be a regular manoeuvre. However, what many were really not happy about was the fact that the show continued despite a major accident and loss of a life. The US Air Force F-16 team was also one of the performers, but they pulled themselves out in solidarity with Wg Cdr Syal and his family.
Captain Taylor Hiester, part of the US F-16 team, shared what the scene was like for the Indian team’s place, while the rest of the world at the Dubai air show carried on. He expressed anger as to how the organisers continued with the show right after dousing the fire that erupted from the crash Tejas had just suffered.
“‘The show must go on’ is what they always say. And they’re right. But just remember someone will say that after you’re gone too,” the captain said in a detailed post on Instagram.
‘It ended with ‘Congratulations to all…”
Hiester, who goes by @femahiester on Instagram, said he was grateful to all who reached out to him asking for his team’s well being. He said his team was not involved in any mishap and were on their way to their home in the US.
However, he added, “Yesterday, on the final day of the Dubai Airshow, Indian Air Force Wing Commander Namansh Syal was killed performing a fighter jet acrobatic demo in the Tejas. Our team was preparing our own airplane to fly our own display. Though the show made the shocking decision to continue with the flying schedule, our team along with a few others made the decision to cancel our final performance out of respect to the pilot, his colleagues and family.”
He then went on to share some observations he called “personal notes”. Hiester said it was the first time his team had witnessed something like this (Dubai air show crash) and it happened just before their 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,” he said.
He added that as the crew put the fire out, and “I was notified by the airshow organizers that the flying display would continue, I made the decision that we would cancel”.
“I walked through the show site maybe an hour or two later expecting to find it empty, down, or off. It wasn’t. The announcer was still enthusiastic, the crowd still watched the next several routines with excitement and when the show was over, it ended with “Congratulations to all of our sponsors, performers and we’ll see you in 2027,” the F-16 Captain said highlighting how people just became oblivion to what exactly happened moments ago.
‘I was shaken awake by this truth’
In his post, Captain Hiester said what was happening in front of him was very “uncomfortable” for him for multiple reasons. “…some of them selfish, imagining my own team walking out of the show site without me, rock and roll playing on the speakers as another act performs”.
“However, that very jarring shock of misplaced, borderline alternate reality sense of normalcy was a gift in its own way. Just before the last performance, at the last show, the last time we’d all wear our show uniforms together, I was shaken awake by this truth – despite whatever guise, whatever “rockstar treatment”, fancy dinners and sponsor chalets, my team who became my family is all I ever had in the first place. It’s a lesson I’ll keep with me long after I’m finished with demonstration flying, It applies to you too,” he said.
The people you invest in, the people that you love and the people that love you back, whether they have your blood or not, will be the only way you live past your own individual end, the F-16 pilot continued.
Once the black smoke is gone and out of sight, he added, the company you work for, the dollars you stressed about making, the people you didn’t know but worked so hard to please, will still stand there listening to rock and roll and film the very next act that follows.
The Indian Air Force and the entire country is mourning the loss of a brave and dear son of the nation, Wing Commander Namansh Syal.