Ajit Pawar passed away, the body has been kept in a special establishment, the last rites will take place today (Photo Source- PTI)
Omprakash Tiwari, Jagran, Mumbai. Ajit Pawar, one of the tallest faces of Maharashtra politics and the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, died in a plane crash on Wednesday morning. The accident occurred during landing near the airport of his hometown Baramati in Pune district.
As soon as the plane crashed, it exploded and turned into a ball of fire. All five people on board the plane, including the crew, lost their lives in the accident. The state government has announced three days of state mourning in the state.
Deputy Chief Minister six times
The last rites of Ajit Pawar, who was six-time Deputy Chief Minister of the state, will be performed with full state honors in Baramati at 11 am on Thursday. Various leaders of the ruling party and opposition including President Draupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have expressed deep grief over his demise.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reached Baramati and described Ajit Pawar's death as unbelievable. He said that he has lost a good friend. DGCA has started a high-level investigation into the causes of the accident.
An expert team of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has reached the crash site so that the forensic investigation of the accident can be started. 66-year-old Ajit Pawar, popularly known as 'Dada' in the political circles of Maharashtra, left Mumbai for Baramati in Pune district at around 8.10 am on Wednesday.
Ajit Pawar was going to address the election campaign
He was going there to address four public meetings to campaign for the local body elections to be held on February 5. Others killed in the crash include Captain Sumit Kapoor, co-pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak, Ajit Pawar's personal security officer Vidit Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
Captain Sumit Kapoor had 15,000 hours of flying experience and Captain Shambhavi Pathak had 1,500 hours of flying experience. According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the privately chartered aircraft Learjet 45 (VT-SSK) crashed and caught fire while landing at Baramati airport at around 8.44 am.
Civil Aviation Minister K. According to Rammohan Naidu, visibility was very low at that time. The pilot performed a 'go-around' (postponing landing for various reasons, including bad weather) when he did not see the runway at first.
After the 'go-around', clearance was given for landing, but even after receiving the clearance, the pilot did not give any 'read-back' (did not repeat the ATC message) to ATC and it caught fire on the side of the runway shortly afterwards.
The Civil Aviation Ministry quoted the person handling air traffic control in Baramati as saying that despite reports of calm weather, the plane faced visibility problems while attempting to land. At 8.18 am the aircraft first contacted Baramati Air Traffic Control, 30 nautical miles (about 55 km) from Baramati.
The crew was told that the air was calm and visibility was about 3,000 metres. At the beginning of the second attempt the crew reported that the runway was still not visible, but after a few seconds they said that the runway was visible.
On this, ATC gave permission to land at 8.43 am. But the crew did not repeat the ATC message and at 8.44 ATC personnel saw flames rising along the runway. The pictures coming from the accident site were heart-wrenching.
According to eyewitnesses, as soon as the plane fell, there was a huge explosion and a cloud of smoke covered the sky. Local people ran to help, but the fire was so severe that no one could be saved. Later, Ajit Pawar's body was identified by his wrist watch.
The "black boxes" (containing the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder) recovered from the plane will be analyzed to determine the cause of the crash, an official said.
The plane was 16 years old
The aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures Private Limited, was 16 years old. VK Singh, owner of VSR Ventures, said the pilot probably did not see the runway and made a "missed approach", which is standard procedure in such cases.
VSR Ventures' fleet consists of seven Learjet 45 aircraft (including the aircraft involved in the accident), five Embraer 135BJ aircraft, four King Air B200 aircraft and one Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. Baramati airport is an uncontrolled airfield where traffic is usually provided by instructors and pilots from local flying training organizations.
Mamta said- conspiracy, Sharad Pawar said- accident
After Ajit Pawar's plane crashed, politics started in political circles regarding this accident. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, sensing a conspiracy in this accident, demanded an investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court. But Ajit Pawar's uncle and veteran Maharashtra leader Sharad Pawar has made it clear that it was just an accident. There should be no politics on this.
Expert claims, if there was 'Instrument Landing System' the accident probably would not have happened
Aviation expert and retired pilot Ehsan Khalid says that all the evidence present at the accident site should be preserved and should not be tampered with, as they will be important for the AAIB investigation. Visibility was neither very good nor bad, he said, but it was also not so bad that it would have required a diversion.
It appears that the plane attempted to land and then began a spin, meaning it aborted the landing. Khalid said that as far as he knows, Baramati airport does not have an 'Instrument Landing System', so in poor visibility conditions the pilot and the aircraft have to navigate along the runway with their own eyes and if the visibility is poor, instruments are of little help.
Had this system been installed the accident could have been avoided. Describing pilot Sumit Kapoor as a gentleman, Khalid said, 'I don't know what the situation was in the cockpit at that time or whether there was some technical fault along with bad weather which worsened the situation so much that the plane could not be controlled during landing.'
Supporters have started gathering
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers and Pawar supporters have started gathering in large numbers at his residence in Baramati and Mumbai. Ajit Pawar was known for his outspoken style and development work.
The demise of Ajit Pawar, who was elected MLA from Baramati eight times and MP from Baramati once, is the fall of a big pillar of the political history of Maharashtra. His mortal remains have been kept for the last glimpse in the same Vidya Pratishthan in Baramati, which was built under the supervision of Ajit Pawar himself. Vidya Pratishtha is a big educational institute.
New CCTV footage of Ajit Pawar's plane crash: Suddenly tilted to the left, a ball of fire formed as it fell
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