Pilot Shambhavi Pathak's Last Message To Grandmother Before Baramati Crash

"Hi, good morning, Dadda."

That was the last message Captain Shambhavi Pathak ever sent.

A few minutes later, her grandmother Meera Pathak replied softly, as she always did, "Good morning, Chini." She did not know then that this simple exchange, sent at around 6:30 am, would become a memory she would hold on to for the rest of her life.

On Wednesday morning at 8:45 am, a plane crashed at Baramati Airport in Maharashtra. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, along with four others, lost their lives in the accident. Among them was Captain Shambhavi Pathak, a young pilot from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. By the time the news reached her grandmother, the phone that had carried that tender message had fallen silent forever.

Meera Pathak lives alone in house number D-61, Basant Vihar, Gwalior. Her family has shifted to Delhi, but her memories remain rooted in this house, memories filled with a little girl everyone lovingly called Chini. On Wednesday morning, Meera Pathak sat staring at her phone, tears rolling down her face.

"I didn't know this was the last message," she said, her voice breaking.

The grieving grandmother recalled the moment she sensed something was wrong. "My eldest son told me there had been a plane crash. Last night, I had even asked him on the phone, 'Where is Chini?' She mostly lived in Mumbai. She didn't call me often. She didn't even message me usually. I don't know how she remembered me today."

Around 9 am, Shambhavi's father, Vikram Pathak, called. He was crying. "He said he would call me back and disconnected. I had already heard about the crash. In my heart, I knew something was wrong," Meera said. Two hours later, the devastating confirmation arrived Shambhavi was no more.

For Meera Pathak, Shambhavi was more than a granddaughter. "She called me Dadda, not Dadi," she said. "After my husband passed away, she used to say that I was her grandfather too. She was very close to my heart. We didn't talk often because of her work, but whenever we spoke, we talked for a long time."

Shambhavi had recently visited Madhya Pradesh with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and had spent an hour or two with her grandmother. Last year, when her grandfather passed away, she stayed with Meera Pathak for 13 days, refusing to leave her side.

Born in Murar, Gwalior, Shambhavi spent a large part of her childhood here. Her love for flying ran in her blood. Her grandfather, Shri Kishan Pathak, retired from the Air Force as a Wing Commander, and her father, Vikram Pathak, served as a Group Captain in the Indian Air Force. "When my son went to the Kargil War, her mother brought her here," Meera recalled. "She grew up watching planes, listening to stories of the sky."

Shambhavi began her education at Air Force Vidya Bharati School, Gwalior, joining class two in 2006. After completing her primary education, she studied at Air Force Delhi Public Secondary School between 2016 and 2018. She later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics, Aviation, and Aerospace Science and Technology from the University of Mumbai.

Her journey to the cockpit took her across continents. She underwent commercial pilot and flight training at the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy, worked as an Assistant Flight Instructor at the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, held a Flight Instructor Rating 'A', and possessed a Frozen Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) issued by the DGCA.

"She was brilliant from childhood," her grandmother said. "She always wanted to fly."

On Wednesday, that dream ended in tragedy.

In a quiet house in Basant Vihar, Gwalior, Meera Pathak keeps looking at her phone at a message that arrived like any other morning greeting, and now stands as a heartbreaking reminder of love, loss, and a life that took flight far too soon.