Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and Five Others Killed in Plane Crash

The 66-year-old political leader was one of the six people who died when the chartered flight crashed on an attempted landing at Baramati Airport in the Pune district. This accident occurred around 08:48 AM on 28 January 2026. It is reported that the airplane was a Learjet 45 with registration VT-SSK and was flying back to his hometown of Baramati to organize four public meetings, a part of the campaign for the upcoming election of the Zilla Parishad.

Details of the Crash

Early reports given by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the local authorities show that the aircraft experienced a lot of problems in its final lift. Baramati Airport manager Shivaji Taware told the media that the landing attempt had gone off-center on runway 11.

The impact was catastrophic. Eyewitnesses saw the plane skid and burst into flames and smoke. A lot of black smoke burst out on the airport grounds and covered a range of a few kilometres. Emergency response teams, in this case, fire tenders and ambulances, were quick to respond, but the intensity of the blaze was a big bottleneck to any form of rescue.

Kiran Gujar, a close assistant of the Deputy Chief Minister who was at the local hospital, attested to the fatal results. Mr. Pawar and all six others were murder victims, he reported. Along with the long-serving politician, it also took the lives of his security officer, Vidhit Jadhav, and Pinki Jadhav, and two pilots, Sumit Kapur and Shambhavi Pathak.

Investigation and Site Visuals

Photographs of the crash showed a scary scene of smoke-heated metal and burnt debris scattered around the runway entrance. The plane appeared completely destroyed by the huge flames later. According to Sandeep Gill, the Superintendent of Police of Pune, the rescue crews recovered the bodies of the accident and took them to a nearby hospital, where they underwent post-mortem investigations.

The DGCA has also put into commission a thorough investigation to determine the actual cause of the accident. Even though there are some preliminary reports that there might have been some technical failure in case of the emergency landing, investigators are looking into all the factors that led to it, such as weather conditions and the mechanical malfunctions. The Baramati Airport, which was transferred to the Maharashtra Airport Development Company, has been closed momentarily.

A Political Career Cut Short

Ajit Pawar was a great personality in the politics of Maharashtra and was commonly referred to as Dada by his supporters. His career spanned thirty years, starting in the early 1980s. He became the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, having served six consecutive terms in various government coalitions.

Just a day before the incident, Mr. Pawar was present at a senior Cabinet Committee meeting over infrastructure in Mumbai, which was chaired by the Chief Minister. Famous due to his administrative determination and deep attachment to the Baramati constituency, where the man served seven terms in the state, his death marks the end of an era of the Nationalist Congress Party.

For the latest news update, Mr. Pawar did not post anything on social media until a few minutes before the accident. At 08:57 AM, a message was put on his X (previously Twitter) account in remembrance of the anniversary of the freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai.

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