How many Indian Air Force aircraft have crashed in past five years?

An Indian fighter aircraft, the indigenously developed Tejas, crashed during a demonstration flight at the Dubai Air Show on Friday.

A fireball was seen immediately after the aircraft impacted the ground, with thick black smoke rising from the site of the incident.

In a post on X, the Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the death of the pilot in the incident.

This is not the first time an IAF jet has been destroyed in an accident. Here’s a list of crashes reported over the past five years.

2020 February 23: MiG-29K

An IAF MiG-29k crashed off the coast of Goa, The Times of India reported, quoting an Indian Navy spokesperson. The aircraft had been on a routine training sortie.

An image of an Indian Air Force MiG-29K. — Photo courtesy The Times of India/File

2021 March 17: MiG-21 Bison

An IAF pilot was killed when his MiG-21 Bison aircraft crashed in central India.

Group Captain A Gupta had taken off for a combat training mission from an airbase before he experienced the fatal accident, an IAF statement said.

It added that a court of inquiry had been set up to investigate and determine the cause of the accident.

2022 July 29: MiG-21 Bison

Two pilots were killed in India after a Soviet-era MiG-21 crashed during a training sortie in Rajasthan, the air force said.

The IAF said the training aircraft “met with an accident” and said an investigation was ordered to determine the cause of the crash. Wing Commander M. Rana and Flight Lieutenant Adivitiya Bal were killed.

2023 January 29: Sukhoi Su-30, Dassault Mirage 2000

Two IAF jets crashed, killing one pilot and injuring two others, in an apparent mid-air collision during exercises near the capital city.

The crash involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30, carrying two pilots, and a French-built Mirage 2000, operated by a third. Both aircraft took off from the Gwalior air base, around 50 kilometres east of where they came down.

Military officials inspect wreckage of a crashed aircraft after two Indian Air Force fighter jets crashed on January 28, 2023 in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, India. — Rajasthan State Disaster Response Force via AFP/File

May 8: MiG-21 Bison

Three people on the ground died near Rajasthan’s Suratgarh area in India when a Russian-made MiG-21 military aircraft suffered an “onboard emergency” and crashed, destroying a house.

The IAF said that the pilot ejected safely and the accident happened shortly after take-off in a routine training sortie.

2024 March 12: HAL Tejas

A domestically made fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Tuesday in the western state of Rajasthan, the first such incident since the jet was inducted.

Indian Air Force LCA Tejas performs an aerobatic display during the Aero India 2023 air show at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru, India on February 13, 2023. — Reuters/File

November 4: MiG-29

The IAF reported that a MiG-29 fighter crashed near Agra during a routine training sortie, due to what it called a “system malfunction”.

“The pilot manoeuvered the aircraft to ensure no damage to life or property on ground, before ejecting safely,” the air force wrote on X. “An enquiry [sic] has been ordered by the IAF, to ascertain the cause of the accident.”

2025 July 9: SEPECAT Jaguar

The Indian Air Force (IAF) said two of its pilots were killed as a Jaguar fighter jet crashed near a village in Rajasthan’s Churu district.

The aircraft, originally a British-French-made aircraft, crashed in an agricultural field at around 1:25pm, Rajaldesar Station House Officer Kamlesh told Press Trust of India.