Baramati plane crash reason: Why did the Redbird Flight aircraft crash near the spot where Ajit Pawar died?

A trainer aircraft operated by a private company made a crash landing at Baramati in Maharashtra's Pune district after developing a technical snag on Wednesday morning, police said.

No serious injuries were reported in the incident, and the trainee pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, escaped safely following the incident near Gojubavi village adjacent to the Baramati airstrip area, officials said.

The aircraft belonged to the Redbird Flight Training Academy, they said.


The incident occurred at 8.50 am, Pune Superintendent of Police Sandip Singh Gill told PTI.

Why did the plane crash?

Aircraft from the same company have previously also been involved in accidents in the district.
"As per preliminary information received from eyewitnesses, the aircraft was flying at a comparatively low altitude when it developed a technical malfunction. During the crash landing, one side of the aircraft reportedly hit a light pole before it struck the ground," he said.

Police rushed to the spot immediately after receiving information about the incident.

"Necessary inquiry and further action are underway," the official added.

Ajit Pawar's plane crash

The incident comes just months after a deadly Learjet 45 crash in January this year, in which all five persons on board, including Ajit Pawar, were killed after the aircraft went down near the runway while attempting to land.

Ajit Pawar died on the morning of January 28 when the Learjet 45 aircraft (VT-SSK) carrying him crash-landed, killing all five people on board. Among the deceased were Pawar, his personal security officer, a flight attendant, and two pilots. He was travelling from Mumbai to Baramati to campaign for the Zilla Panchayat elections.

The DGCA constituted a multi-disciplinary audit team that observed several non-compliances of approved procedures in the organisation in the area of airworthiness, air safety, and flight operations and ordered a special safety audit of M/s VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB)'s report also highlighted that there is no meteorological facility available at Baramati Airfield, and the weather information is usually passed on to the aircraft with the help of a weather instrument installed in the temporary tower.

The inspection of the aerodrome at the Baramati Airfield revealed that the airport is an uncontrolled airfield and does not have any navigational aids other than wind socks. The two wind socks are available towards the runway 29 side, while no wind sock was available towards the runway 11 side, where the aeroplane carrying Ajit Pawar attempted to land.

Highlighting other discrepancies with the aerodrome, the report said that only Visual Flight Rules (VFR) operations can be carried out; however, regular flying training operations and Non-scheduled operations are carried out at the airport.