From Sanjay Gandhi to Ajit Pawar: Indian politicians who died in helicopter, plane crashes

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is perhaps the first Indian politician who reportedly died in a plane crash on 18 August 1945 in present day Taiwan.

Mumbai: When Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district - he joined the list of several top Indian politicians and prominent personalities who had died in aviation mishaps.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is perhaps the first Indian politician who died reportedly in a plane crash on August 18, 1945 in present day Taiwan.

Sitting Chief Ministers who died in plane crash

The sitting Chief Ministers who died in plane crashes are Dorjee Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh in 2011 and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2009.

Top politicians who lost their lives in an aviation accident

Top politicians who died in plane crashes are Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, charismatic politician and cricket administrator Madhavrao Scindia, the then Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi, S Mohan Kumaramangalam, and the then Minister of State for Defence N V N Somu.

Sanjay Gandhi, who was just 34, was killed when a small plane he was flying crashed soon after taking off from the Safdarjung airport in Delhi on June 23, 1980. Diving and looping in aerobatic manoeuvres, he lost control, and the plane crashed near Teen Murti house.

Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, himself a former Civil Aviation Minister, was killed in a Cessna aircraft crash on September 30, 2001 while travelling to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to address a public rally.

Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader G M C Balayogi died in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002 in Andhra Pradesh.

Former Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP leader Vijay Rupani died on 12 June 2025 in the crash involving Air India Flight 171 that took off just after take off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad for London-Gatwick in the United Kingdom.

Politicians who escaped a plane crash

Among those lucky include late Prime Minister Morarji Desai famously escaped when his special aircraft crashed in Assam in November 1977. Congress leader Ahmed Patel and union ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Kumari Selja had a similar miraculous escape in 2004 in Gujarat.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and Minister Pratap Singh Bajwa survived one such chopper accident when it hit electrical wires soon after taking off in Gurdaspur around 10 years ago.

Punjab's former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal escaped unhurt after his chartered helicopter made an emergency landing in Ferozepur Aug 30.

BJP president Rajnath Singh and vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had a miraculous escape last year when they were travelling to Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot escaped after his helicopter fell on a tree in Churu district in 2001.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had lucky escapes in aviation mishaps two to three times.

Other prominent figures

India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, tragically died in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021. The incident occurred near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu while he was en route from Sulur to Wellington with his wife and 11 others.

The father of India’s nuclear programme and eminent scientist Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha died in a tragic crash aboard Air India Flight 101 on January 24, 1966. The plane crashed into Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps due to miscommunication with Geneva air traffic control.

Industrialist and Haryana minister Om Prakash Jindal, lost his life in a helicopter crash in 2005.

The then Punjab Governor Surendra Nath and nine members of his family were killed when the government's Super-King aircraft crashed into high mountains in bad weather on July 9, 1994 in Himachal Pradesh.