Ajit Pawar dies in plane crash: Confusion surrounded the Learjet 45 aircraft carrying deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Maharashtra’s Baramati on Wednesday as it coordinated with the ground control staff to make a landing. The jet made two landing attempts as it initially failed to spot the runway.
Not so long after, the plane crashed, bursting into flames, leading to the deaths of Ajit Pawar, his security officer Vidip Jadhav, pilot-in-command Captain Sumit Kapoor, first officer Captain Shambhavi Pathak and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
After the crash, the civil aviation ministry issued a release detailing the communication between the pilots flying the plane and the ATC on the ground. The ministry said that Baramati is an uncontrolled airfield and pilots from the flying training organisations there are responsible for providing information on air traffic.
Here’s a blow-by-blow account of what happened on the plane moments before the deadly crash:
- The Learjet 45 aircraft took off from the Mumbai airport at 8:10 am, data on FlightRadar24 showed.
- The aircraft that was carrying Ajit Pawar and four others, first came in contact with Baramati at 8:18 am, according to the civil aviation ministry.
- The jet dropped altitude over the next 20-odd minutes as it approached Baramati, showed the flight-tracking data.
- The next call was made when the plane was 30 nautical miles (nm) short of the airport, the release said. Following this, the ATC advised the flight to “descend in visual meteorological conditions at the pilot’s discretion”.
- The crew was then informed that the winds were calm and visibility was around 3,000 metres.
- During the first landing attempt, the crew reported that the runway was not in sight and carried out a go-around to make a second attempt.
- Upon circling back, the air traffic control asked the crew if they could spot the runway. But once again, they replied that the runway was “currently not in sight”. “Will call when runway is in sight,” said the ministry release.
- At 8:43 am, the aircraft was granted a landing clearance after the pilots confirmed visual contact with the runway. “However, they did not give a readback of the landing clearance,” the release said.
- Just a minute later at 8:44 am, the ATC saw a ball of flames around the threshold of at Runway 11 and emergency team was dispatched to the site. “The wreckage of the aircraft is located on the left side of the runway abeam threshold R/W 11,” the release said.
‘Oh sh**’: Last words heard from crew
A senior DGCA official familiar with the early probe into the crash said that the Learjet 45 crashed significantly short of the runway threshold but was well within the airstrip perimeter.
“There were no flames prior to touchdown,” said the person. “The last words heard from the crew were ‘oh s***’…,” the person added.
As detailed in the civil aviation ministry release, the Learjet 45 plane was informed by the ATC that the visibility was around 3,000 metres. “A visibility for a fixed wing with 3,000 metres should not be an issue to land,” an industry insider told HT on anonymity.
On the issue of there being no readback from the aircraft upon receiving clearance for the landing, an AAI official said: “It is a standard practice to readback to the ATC, which acts like a confirmation to the instructions given to the pilot.”
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was among the five people who died in the deadly crash. The NCP leader’s funeral will take place in his home bastion of Baramati at 11 am on Thursday.
