Ajit Pawar plane crash: MOCA confirms recovery of Black Box; probe to examine all possible angles

Mumbai: The Black Box on board the ill-fated the chartered plane that crashed in Baramati in Pune district killing five persons including Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister and NCP president Ajit Pawar has been recovered even as it reiterated a transparent probe has been recovered even as the probe team has paced the investigations and examining all possible causes behind the disaster.

The probe teams are examining all the possible angles behind Wednesday’s plane crash.

Its could have been because of adverse weather conditions and poor visibility, technical issues or pilot judgment error or a combination of factors, aviation experts said.

The plane, a Learjet 45, belonging to VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, with registration number VT-SSK, carrying five persons, has taken off from the General Aviation Terminal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai and headed for Baramati, where Pawar had engagements for the entire day. 

The aircraft took off around 0810 hrs from Mumbai and crashed around  0844 hrs at the rocky-outcrop threshold of the table-top  runway of Baramati Airport.

“Ensuring a thorough, transparent, and time-bound inquiry remains a top priority,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) said on Wednesday. 

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is overseeing the probe.

A team of three officers from Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) Delhi led by G V G Yugandhar is in Baramati. 

Another team of three officers from the DGCA, Mumbai Regional Office, reached the crash site. 

“The investigation is progressing expeditiously, and the black box of the ill-fated aircraft has been recovered,” the MOCA said, adding that it is fully committed to completing the investigation within a defined timeframe, strictly in accordance with established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and laid-down guidelines.

The investigation has been initiated in accordance with Rules 5 and 11 of the AAIB Rules, 2025.

Aviation experts said that taking off and landing on a table-top runway is more challenging than the normal runway. 

The Baramati airfield is located at an elevation of approximately 2,000 feet and does not have an Instrument Landing System (ILS) and hence the pilots have to rely on manual and visual techniques for landing.

Initial investigations have pointed towards the poor visibility conditions even as some CCTV footage have revealed the plane tilting a bit before crashing and becoming a ball of fire. 

Besides the flight log, maintenance schedules and previous manifest needs a closer analysis, the experts said, adding that the records of Captain Sumit Kapur served as the Pilot‑in‑Command (PIC) with over 15,000 hours of flying while Captain Sambhavi Pathak was the Second-in-Command (SIC) clocking 1,500 flying hours, will also be checked and analysed in detail.