'No Mayday, No Warning': The Unanswered Questions Behind The Baramati Jet Crash That Claimed Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's Life

Mumbai: The crash of the Bombardier Learjet 45 in Baramati has left investigators and the public with a haunting question – how did an airworthy jet, flown by a veteran pilot with over 15,000 hours of experience, fall from the sky in the final 60 seconds of flight?

The Indian political landscape was shaken by the tragic death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday, which also killed four other people on-board. Aviation experts are dissecting a mystery of silence and physics. Despite landing clearance, there was no cockpit response or Mayday call, and within 60 seconds the aircraft was a fireball. Unlike the AI-171 crash in Ahmedabad in June 2025, the incident lacks sufficient video footage to assess the aircraft’s condition in its final moments.

Capt Ashish Kumar, an aviation expert and the CEO of Flying Birds Aviation, highlighted psychological pressure on the crew as one of the possible reasons. He said that the crew is sometimes forced to land at the destined airport by the politicians or there is also a natural pressure built due to the fact of who is onboard. “There are multiple psychological factors inside the cockpit. The pilot knew the runway was short and therefore he had a pressure to land at the very beginning of the runway.

A difficult situation turns into a trial factor when a Deputy CM is onboard,” Kumar said. While Kumar ruled out the possibility of the aircraft hitting any building, tower or tree, he suggested it may have suffered a bird hit at a very low altitude.

“This is also a possibility, and the pilot may not have realised it given the aircraft’s temperament at around 500 feet,” he added. Capt Sam Thomas, president of Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) India, highlighted that when the crew would have attempted a landing, the pilot faces towards the rising sun and the fog, creating a tunnel effect.

“Looking directly into the sun can cause a problem because sometimes you spot the runway very late,” he said. The sunlight factor was also backed by Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP)’s president Capt CS Randhawa. “When the visibility was very poor, the landing should not have been attempted. The weather was bad from the time the aircraft was transferred from Pune to Baramati,” he said.

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