Baramati (Maharashtra): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died on Wednesday after a chartered aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Baramati in Pune district. Along with Pawar, four other people on board, including two pilots, a personal security officer and a flight attendant, also lost their lives in the tragedy.

Pawar had departed from Mumbai earlier in the morning to attend multiple campaign rallies in Pune district for the February 5 zilla parishad elections when the crash occurred.

Captain Sumit Kapoor, Pilot-in-Command

The aircraft was commanded by Captain Sumit Kapoor, a highly experienced pilot with over 15,000 hours of flying time. He was at the controls of the Learjet 45 when it attempted to land amid poor visibility conditions at Baramati airport.

Captain Shambhavi Pathak, Co-Pilot

Co-pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak had logged around 1,500 flying hours and had been working with charter operator VSR Ventures for the past three years. According to her professional profile, she completed her commercial pilot training at the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy in 2018–19 and later studied aviation sciences at Mumbai University between 2020 and 2022.

Vidip Jadhav, Personal Security Officer

Vidip Jadhav, a police naik attached to the Special Protection Unit of Mumbai Police, was serving as Pawar’s Personal Security Officer (PSO). A resident of Vitava near Thane, Jadhav is survived by his wife, son and mother. His family left for Baramati after receiving news of the crash.

Pinky Mali, Flight Attendant

Pinky Mali was the flight attendant on board the Learjet 45 operated by Delhi-based VSR Ventures. According to her father, she had earlier flown with the President, chief ministers and senior political leaders, and this was her fourth flight with Ajit Pawar. She had been working as a cabin crew member for five years, beginning her career with Air India before moving to private charter services.

What led to the crash

According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the aircraft attempted a landing but executed a go-around due to poor visibility. After receiving clearance to land again, the aircraft reportedly did not provide a readback to air traffic control and moments later burst into flames near the runway threshold.

Flight tracking data showed that the aircraft took off from Mumbai at 8:10 am and disappeared from radar around 8:45 am, with the crash occurring shortly after.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) confirmed that all five people on board- Pawar, his PSO, an attendant and two crew members- died in the accident.