Ajit Pawar's death | ‘Plane spun before crash’: Eyewitness recounts moments before Baramati aircraft crash

An eyewitness who was working in the fields during the time of the plane crash in Baramati said that the plane was about to land at the airport before it rose up again.

The woman said that parts of the plane flew all the way to her house.

“The plane was landing at the airport, but suddenly rose upto the sky again. It circled two or three times in the air and then crashed down rapidly. As soon as it hit the ground, the plane exploded. The iron parts and debris flew so hard that they reached the roof of our house,” she said.

The private VSR plane carrying Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and 5 other passengers crashed into a field near Barmati airport at around 8:50 am, killing all of its passengers.

The passengers included Videep Jadhav, Captain Sumit Kapoor, Captain Sambhi Pathak and Pinky Mali.

Another person who saw the incident said that the following the crash, the plane burst into flames, followed by four to five blasts.

Another local who saw the incident said, “We saw this terrible incident with our own eyes. At first, the plane suddenly started descending, and we realised that it might crash. Slowly, the plane descended and crashed. At first, we thought the plane was landing on the runway, but then it crashed, and there was a huge explosion. As soon as we realised that the plane had crashed, many people from the surrounding area rushed to and tried to help, but the fire was so big that no one could. We cannot even express our pain. The plane crashed about 100 feet away from the track.”

The flight had taken off from Mumbai at around 8:10 am, and it disappeared from the radar around 8:45 am. Ajit Pawar was travelling to Baramati to address public meetings as part of the campaign for the February 5, zilla parishad elections in the state.