A sudden blaze erupted in the morning sky over Baramati at 8:46:02 on Wednesday, captured on a nearby highway CCTV. Within seconds, a plane carrying Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others plunged to the ground, turning the moment into a grim spectacle of fire and smoke.
Visuals from the crash site showed flames, smoke and the mangled wreckage of the aircraft as emergency responders and shocked locals gathered at the scene. The grim confirmation followed soon after: all five people on board had died.
Data from Flightradar24 indicated the plane disappeared from radar at 8:45 am while attempting a second landing. An eyewitness reported the aircraft crashed approximately 100 feet short of the runway.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced three days of state mourning after Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash near Baramati, expressing sorrow over the loss and honouring Pawar’s contributions to the state. Leaders and citizens across Maharashtra paid tribute as the state entered mourning. The Pune Municipal Corporation also ordered a two-day shutdown of the city as a mark of respect.
Pawar holds the record for the longest tenure as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, serving non-consecutively on six occasions. He collaborated twice with Congress' Prithviraj Chavan and BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, and once with Shiv Sena leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. Unfortunately, his aspiration to become the chief minister has not been realized.