Ajit Pawar plane crash | 'Runway not in sight': Ministry of Civil Aviation details events leading to Baramati accident

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday released the sequence of events that occurred during the plane crash in Baramati that killed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others on board.

The Learjet 45 aircraft, with registration VT-SSK, crashed while attempting to land at the Baramati airstrip. According to the ministry, both the pilots, Captain Sumit Kapur and Captain Shambhavi Pathak, had flying time of more than 15,000 hours each.

Baramati is an uncontrolled airfield and traffic information is provided by the instructors/Pilot from the Flying training Organisations at Baramati, the ministry said in a statement.

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The person manning the ATC at the time of the incident narrated the sequence of evets as follows.

• On January 28, 2026 the aircraft VI-SSK first came in contact with Baramati at 08:18 am IST.

• The aircraft's next call was at 30 NM inbound to Baramati and they were released by Pune approach. They were advised to descend in Visual Meteorological conditions at pilot's discretion.

• The crew enquired about the winds and visibility and they were informed that the winds were calm and visibility was around 3000 metres.

• The aircraft then reported on the final approach of Runway 11 but the runway was not in sight to them.

• They initiated a go-around in the first approach.

• After Go Around, the aircraft was asked about its position and crew reported on final approach of runway 11 once again.

• They were asked to report runway in sight.

• They replied “runway is currently not in sight, will call when runway is in sight". After a few seconds they reported that the runway is in sight.

• The aircraft was cleared to land on runway 11 at 08:43 am IST, however, they did not give a readback of the landing clearance.

• Next, the ATC saw the flames around the threshold of runway 11 at 08:44 am IST.

• Emergency services then rushed to the crash site.

• The wreckage of the aircraft is located on the left side of the runway abeam threshold R/W 11.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has taken over the investigation. Meanwhile, DG, AAIB is reaching the accident site for investigation.

More about the Learjet 45 aircraft and VSR Ventures

VSR Ventures is a Non-Scheduled Operator with a fleet of 17 aircraft. The fleet included seven (07) Learjet 45 aircraft (one involved in accident), Five Embraer 135BJ aircraft, Four King Air B200 aircraft and One Pilatus PC-12 aircraft.

The last regulatory audit was carried out by DGCA in February 2025 and no level-I finding were issued.

On September 14, 2023, another Learjet 45 from the operator's fleet had crashed while landing at Mumbai Airport. The accident is under investigation by AAIB.