‘Shocking decision to continue’: US pilot who cancelled performance after Tejas crash at Dubai air show

Sharing an emotional account of the incident on Saturday, Hiester said the accident took place when his team was preparing their plane to fly their own display.

“Though the show (organisers) made the shocking decision to continue with the flying schedule, our team, along with a few others, made the final decision to cancel our final performance out of respect to the pilot, his colleagues and family,” he wrote.

“After two years of doing this job (performing at the airshow), that was a first for our team and it came just before our 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, the 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.

Hiester said that after cancelling his performance, when he walked through the show site an hour or two later, he expected it to be “empty, down and off”. “However, it wasn’t and was instead, still full with a crowd that continued watching the next few routines as the show continued,” he said.

Hiester said it was uncomfortable for him for a lot of reasons, some of them selfish, imagining his own team walking out of the show site “without me, rock and roll playing on the speakers as another act performs”.

He said, “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.”
He wrote, “It’s a lesson I’ll keep with me long after I’m finished with demonstration flying. It applies to you too.”

The IAF remembered Wing Commander Syal as a thorough professional who served the nation with unwavering commitment, exceptional skill, and an unyielding sense of duty. He was flying the Tejas fighter jet on Friday when it nosedived and burst into flames on hitting the ground.