Afshan Syal (

Some Lesser Known Facts About Afshan Syal

• Afshan Syal is a serving wing commander in the Indian Air Force.

• She was commissioned in December 2011.

• Afshan was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on 29 December 2013 and to Squadron Leader on 29 December 2017.

• She was promoted to Wing Commander in December 2024.

• Her husband, Namansh Syal, was also in the Indian Air Force.

• On 21 November 2025, during the Dubai Air Show at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport, her husband had also participated in the show and was flying a Tejas Light Combat Aircraft during a low-altitude aerial display.

• Unfortunately, during the show, the aircraft lost control, plunged to the ground, and caught fire immediately. Her husband had no time to recover and died in the fatal accident.

  

• Afshan Syal was in a training program in Kolkata when she received news of her husband, Wing Commander Namansh Syal‘s death in the fatal Tejas crash.

• Their daughter was in Sulur, Tamil Nadu with her grandparents.

• She travelled back directly from her training to perform her husband’s final rites in his hometown in Himachal Pradesh.

• Afshan Syal gave the final tribute to her husband in her IAF uniform. An emotional video of her, while giving the final salute to her husband, also went viral.

• Afshan Syal and Namansh Syal had been married for 16 years.

• Her husband had survived by Afshan Syal, their daughter, his father Jagannath Syal, who had served in the Indian Army’s Medical Corps and later worked in the education department, retiring as a principal, and his mother, Veena Devi.