- It was purely an accident, said an emotional Sharad Pawar on nephew Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash
- "A capable leader has left us today. This loss can never be compensated," said Sharad Pawar, Ajit uncle
- Ajit Pawar was killed after his plane crashed near the Baramati airport in Maharashtra’s Pune district
It was purely an accident, said an emotional Sharad Pawar, ruling out any conspiracy in the plane crash that killed his nephew Ajit Pawar on Wednesday morning.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's aircraft, a Bombardier Learjet 45 operated by private firm VSR Aviation, was en route from Mumbai to his home city, Baramati, in Pune district when it crash-landed and burst into flames in an open field near the runway around 8:48 am. Witnesses said the plane was barely 100 metres from the runway when it crashed.
He was on his way to Baramati to campaign for the Zilla Panchayat elections.
The 66-year-old's personal security officer and an assistant as well as two crew members were also on board at the time of the crash, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
"There's no conspiracy involved; it's purely an accident. Maharashtra has suffered a huge loss with the passing of Ajit Pawar. A capable leader has left us today. Maharashtra has lost a great personality today. This loss can never be compensated," Sharad Pawar, Ajit's uncle, said in his first comments on the tragedy.
Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle to join hands with the BJP in 2023. It led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party.
But the two NCP factions recently came together to contest the municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
"Everything is not in our hands. I feel helpless. Crying may seem shameful. Some incidents have no politics behind them, and I have clearly stated my stance on this. There's no conspiracy involved; it's purely an accident. Maharashtra and all of us will have to bear the pain of this forever," the 85-year-old leader added.
As the news of Ajit Pawar's death broke, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the death, alleging that "all other agencies" have been "completely compromised", with several opposition leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge backing her demand.
Sharad Pawar dismissed that charge.
"A stand was floated from Kolkata that there is some politics involved in this incident. But there is nothing like this. There is no politics in it. It was an accident. I request not to bring politics into it," the Senior Pawar added.
VSR Aviation owner VK Singh said the aircraft was "very well maintained", ruling out any technical failure.
"There was absolutely no problem in the aircraft. There was no technical failure as far as we know," he told reporters.
The government released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Pawar's death.
The aircraft was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance it did not give any read-back' to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway.
In aviation parlance, a go-around is a standard procedure where a pilot discontinues a landing attempt and initiates a climb to fly another approach. It is used when a landing cannot be completed safely due to factors like poor weather, an unstable approach, or traffic on the runway. It is a proactive safety measure rather than an emergency.
In aviation, a readback is a crucial safety procedure where a pilot repeats back the essential parts of a message or instruction received from Air Traffic Control (ATC).
It acts as a "closed-loop" communication system, ensuring that the controller's instructions were heard and understood correctly by the flight crew.
The aircraft was trying to land amid poor visibility, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu told reporters in Pune.
Teams from the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) have arrived to carry out a probe into the accident. Preliminary information suggests that visibility was poor at the time the aircraft was attempting to land," Aviation Minister Naidu said.
Ajit Pawar's last rites will be performed with full state honours.
He was the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra non-consecutively. He served in the position for six terms within various governments. He had worked as deputy chief minister in the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.
He is survived by his wife, Sunetra Pawar and two sons, Jay and Parth Pawar.
