Ajit Pawar Plane Crash: What Went Wrong?

The Learjet 45XR aircraft, which was carrying Ajit Pawar and four others from Mumbai, crashed near Baramati airport at 8.48 am on Wednesday.

Ever since news broke that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died in an air crash on Wednesday morning, there is speculation over what could have gone wrong with the jet in which he was flying.

The Learjet 45XR aircraft, which was carrying Ajit Pawar and four others from Mumbai, crashed near Baramati airport at 8.48 am.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff spoke to Captain C S Randhawa, president, Federation of Indian Pilots, to find out what could have gone wrong with the aircraft.

It is a small aircraft which weight about 9,000 to 10,000 kg.

This particular aircraft belongs to VSR Ventures, New Delhi.

Learjet aircraft used by corporates

The aircraft is used widely by corporates; some 1,200 to 1,700 such aircraft are being used across the world.

It is a small 9-seater jet, and comes under the Non Schedule Operators Permit (NSOP) category.

This particular flight was from Mumbai to Baramati and the aircraft crashed before reaching the runway.

What was the distance from the runway when it crashed? At this moment we cannot make out from the visuals or footage that we have got.

Therefore, it is premature to speculate what went wrong with the aircraft.

The first time the pilot made a turnaround but did not land, and he made a second attempt to land the aircraft.

Was there a problem with the aircraft?

Visibility could be a factor

Did the engine fail when he was approaching the runway the second time?

Visibility could be another factor because it is a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) field and it does not have instrumental landing or VOR (Omnidirectional range or critical ground based radio navigation aids).

Therefore, a pilot has to land visually.

Now was there a problem at that point of time and if yes, whether a May Day call was given, that is yet to be found out.

Black box will give the actual picture

They must have retrieved the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder, which is called the black box from which the data will emerge as to what really happened.

Two things are pertinent. There is speculation that there was a landing gear problem in the Learjet, but if it had landing gear problem the aircraft would have crashed on the runway.

And since it crashed before landing on the runway, the question comes up, was there a problem in the engine? If yes, what was the problem?

Problem with aircraft?

We know the pilot did a go-around (of the runway) and tried for a second approach to land, so was there a problem with the aircraft?