An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Air Show

[Trailer23]

In the above images the welding and coating seems to be actively chipped at multiple points, several plates are not sitting flush with the frame.

I'm no expert - but have been seeing these Jets up close for decades at the Dubai Air Show.

If you talk about coating, you outta see the condition of USAF Jets.

The USAF Vipers (Block 30/40) that do Displays are in miserable state - if you get up close.

Even though the A-10 (Warthog) doesn't do any displays here, I have never seen a more beat-up plane in my life.

Even the older Strike Eagles have paint chips coming off.

I don't know about which several plates you're talking about.

By the way, for those who do NOT know, but the 360° video of the TEJAs was made by me. And 'No' - the leaking footage had already been covered earlier by a friend. I just did the walk around clip that pretty much every YouTuber & TV Channel used.

 

[PakSword]

From the pen of Air Cdre Pervaiz Akhtar:

*Salute Across Skies*

The news of an Indian Air Force Tejas crashing during an aerobatic display at the Dubai Air Show is heartbreaking beyond words. Aerobatics are flown on the razor’s edge of the flight envelope—where skill, courage, and precision exist in unforgiving margins. These are not stunts; they are acts of professional mastery, performed by men and women who accept personal risk in the service of national pride and technological confidence.

To the Indian Air Force and to the grieving family of the fallen airman: I offer my deepest and sincerest condolences. A pilot is not merely lost — a guardian of the sky is silenced.

What pains me further is the disgraceful reaction of a few on our side of the border who choose mockery over empathy. This is not patriotism; this is moral illiteracy. One may question policies, decisions, even doctrines — but never the courage of a fellow aviator doing his duty. He flew not for applause, but for his flag, just as we fly for ours. That deserves honour, not ridicule.

I too have lost brothers in uniform under similar unforgiving circumstances — Sherdil Leader Flt Lt Alamdar and Sqn Ldr Hasnat — men who lived and died at the far edge of performance. There are no nationalities in the moment an aircraft goes quiet. There is only loss, and a family left in shattered silence.

A true professional respects another professional. A true warrior salutes another warrior—even across enemy lines. Anything less stains our own uniform.

May the departed pilot find eternal blue skies beyond turbulence.
May his family find strength where words fail.

And may we, on both sides, find the maturity to honour courage — not mock its cost.

 

[Maarkhoor]

GDP of Tamil Nadu today = 2x GDP of Pakistan.
GDP target of Tamil Nadu by 2030 = 4x GDP of Pakistan

Target GDP of UP (which it will not achieve) = 4x GDP of Pakistan
But high likelyhood BIMARU Uttar Pradesh will at least match the GDP of Pakistan in future

it doesn't matter what the denominator is, Pak is behind in a way it will not make up. Average states in India will be ahead of it. And worse, under Munir, GDP is actually declining. Modi startegy will largely be to make GDP of Kashmir greater than the GDP of Pakistan in medium term. It's already 30% the GDP of Pak Punjab and growing.

Still 80% population living below poverty line and have to wait in cues for hours just to get 5 KG of rice and weat.

@RescueRanger
A good attempt to derail thread by our Indian guest.

 

[Khansaheeb]

That's how India took away the limelight from the JF17 which was the most talked about plane at the Dubai airshow until the Indian Tejas air crash:

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[Khansaheeb]

From the pen of Air Cdre Pervaiz Akhtar:

*Salute Across Skies*

The news of an Indian Air Force Tejas crashing during an aerobatic display at the Dubai Air Show is heartbreaking beyond words. Aerobatics are flown on the razor’s edge of the flight envelope—where skill, courage, and precision exist in unforgiving margins. These are not stunts; they are acts of professional mastery, performed by men and women who accept personal risk in the service of national pride and technological confidence.

To the Indian Air Force and to the grieving family of the fallen airman: I offer my deepest and sincerest condolences. A pilot is not merely lost — a guardian of the sky is silenced.

What pains me further is the disgraceful reaction of a few on our side of the border who choose mockery over empathy. This is not patriotism; this is moral illiteracy. One may question policies, decisions, even doctrines — but never the courage of a fellow aviator doing his duty. He flew not for applause, but for his flag, just as we fly for ours. That deserves honour, not ridicule.

I too have lost brothers in uniform under similar unforgiving circumstances — Sherdil Leader Flt Lt Alamdar and Sqn Ldr Hasnat — men who lived and died at the far edge of performance. There are no nationalities in the moment an aircraft goes quiet. There is only loss, and a family left in shattered silence.

A true professional respects another professional. A true warrior salutes another warrior—even across enemy lines. Anything less stains our own uniform.

May the departed pilot find eternal blue skies beyond turbulence.
May his family find strength where words fail.

And may we, on both sides, find the maturity to honour courage — not mock its cost.

Heart breaking because the Indianpilots didn't have fantastic tea afterwards.

 

[Guynextdoor]

Still 80% population living below poverty line and have to wait in cues for hours just to get 5 KG of rice and weat.

@RescueRanger
A good attempt to derail thread by our Indian guest.

I replied to a specific statement by member. The one trying to derail it is you.

 

[Liquidator]

In the same year, India destroyed the reputation of 2 aircraft.

The Rafale and the Tejas.

 

[Ak01]

That's the ECF it's an expanded copper foil its primary purpose is to dissipate the energy from lighting strikes. The reason is carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites are less electrically conductive than traditional aircraft grade aluminum so Airbus needed a solution for a CFRP fuselage to handle the energy of a lightning strike. You are right the paint issue was caused by the ECF and the CFRP expanding or contracting at different rates at varying temperatures.

Airbus had to abandon the ECF and create a new material called the perforated copper foil (PCF) which expands and contracts at the same rate as the CFRP.

Yeah, that’s the main function, but actually I believe I got it backwards, it’s causing the paint to peel instead!

It comes down to the same thing in the end, hence why the PCF

 

[Ak01]

What about the weld quality?? non certified common welding folks can do better than that.

It’s not welds, those are likely just seals with paint over them

 

[Baibers_1260]

In a country of 1.4 billion, there are bound to be many idiotic claims. Claims with no basis and many with malicious intent and can’t become the basis of considering them either an official position nor a majority view.

Sadly many of such posts are picked up by equally motivated individuals to create an impression that suits their own narrative.

Such social media content should be ignored. But it finds traction when given importance.

It's more than just social media . It reflects a general skewed mindset of hyper-nationalism using the "country of 1.4 billion" excuse to justify all failures and shortcomings. .
- "Country of 1.46 billion" so if 45 bridges collapsed in a month it
shouldn't matter
-"Country of 1.46 billion" so if 350+ people were killed in a
botched CBTC software upgrade causing three trains to
collide at Balasore Orissa on June 2, 2023
shouldn't matter
- "Country of 1.46 billion " so if 400 Mig 21s crashed and 200
pilots killed it shouldn't matter.
How come China which is also a country of 1.41 billion doesn't produce social media posts that promote falsehoods in the name of nationalism ?

 

[I*R*A]

Even the Pakistani aviation patch designers shared their work dedicating to the memory of Pilot - good gesture.

What memory? I would respect him if he was killed fighting us bravely, the dude crashed his jet, why do we have to be so sorry about it?

I do not understand why Pakistanis cannot remain indifferent? Sure this happening should be no cause for our happiness, similarly nor it should be for our condolences.

Not very long ago, sportsmen from this dishonorable, crooked, neech quam refused to shake hand with us and here we have some Pakistanis trying their best to please them. No wonder ..

 

[Areesh]

Even the Pakistani aviation patch designers shared their work dedicating to the memory of Pilot - good gesture.

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Abay bas kardo yaar yeh dramai baazi

Pakistanion sai isi tarah k dramai karwa lo

Woh tumhara paani band kar k tumhain piyasa marna chahtai hain aur Pakisanion k dramai dekho

 

[rafale]

the cracking you are seeing is the paint on top of seals cracking.

obviously, with aircraft, different materials expand and contract at different temperatures and rates. Its not ideal for paint because lets say the seal contracts, with the surface around it expanding, the paint is going to crack.

Airbus actually had this issue on the A350, so what they did is place a layer of mesh on top of the composite for the paint to bond to, this way, the surface which the paint adheres to expands and contracts in a uniform manner, preventing the cracking. Obviously, this worked alot better in theory than paper, hence the qatar airways scandal.


View attachment 161657

You can see it very well here, the mesh below and also the paint above.

PAF aircraft tend to look quite good as we repaint our aircraft very, very frequently. Other forces do not. If you compare some UAE or HAF F-16's, wow, they look rough, whereas PAF ones always look mint.

All in all, the finish on that Tejas is nothing surprising, its clear the IAF does not repaint their aircraft as much, and they probably should have picked a more polished example to display, but it doesn't say a ton about processes and quality. The other day, i was speaking to some pilots of a Falcon 8X who were showing me around their aircraft, it was a stunning plane, but when i got up close i thought damn the paint is terrible, cracking on seals etc, thin spots and all, but really, this is standard for aviation, paint is expensive and requires downtime, as long as its mostly there, its not an issue, really, the main thing with the paint is it prevents corrosion.

the mesh on the A350 was not for paint to adhere to.....but in fact to make the aircraft skin conductive as the underneath large use of carbon fiber would prevent proper electro static discharge and conduction. I think there is minimum electrical charge conduction that aircraft bodies must be compatible with. Yes the mesh design also helped with paint......but that was not the only reason.

 

[Ak01]

the mesh on the A350 was not for paint to adhere to.....but in fact to make the aircraft skin conductive as the underneath large use of carbon fiber would prevent proper electro static discharge and conduction. I think there is minimum electrical charge conduction that aircraft bodies must be compatible with. Yes the mesh design also helped with paint......but that was not the only reason.

yes, im aware, its not the primary reason, but the new pcf based solution prevented it from cracking, whereas the previous mesh enhanced the cracking due to the variation in expansion, that was the underlying point, is the different components expand differently.

i re read the post and see why it reads like that, but unfortunately i cant edit nor delete it

 

[Master Chief]

You're genuinely comparing machines to humans?

http://reuters.com/world/india/indias-economy-likely-grew-73-julyseptember-quarter-2025-11-25/

Don't tell me they can grow flying hours YoY sustained for years.

Wtf?? Are you for real? I actually have to explain this?

I'm analogising two different scenarios where I have noticed Indian posters use ABSOLUTE values for comparison and avoid using PROPORTIONS.

I'm discussing the selective deployment of values to create a false impression.

In both instances described, the use of proportions/percentages....anything where a relevant denominator exists....will permit more accurate comparison between the records of different nations. Go back and have a look at what was said and let me know if you still don't get it. I thought you guys taught the world mathematics ffs!

Mods, please leave this post up. It's not off topic.