The death of Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in a plane crash at the Baramati airstrip has sparked questions about the serious safety lapses in civil aviation.
The biggest question—could Pawar and the four others in the Learjet 45 flight have survived the crash? The blame lies with the Baramati Airport too, which reports say lacked proper air traffic control (ATC) facilities.
Specifically, the airport had neither a certified Instrument Landing System (ILS), nor did it have the wider Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) in place. As a result, the airport operated under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), as per an Indian Express report.
Under the VFR, pilots are legally required to have a clear view of the runway before starting landing procedures. This includes visibility of at least five kilometres and clear visual contact with runway lights and markings, without which the landing is not supposed to take place.
When pilots faced with poor visibility approach airports with instrument flight rules in place, the airport uses various facilities such as the instrument landing system to carefully guide the pilots to land properly.
However, at airports like Baramati, which lacked all this, pilots have to depend on limited guidance till a certain altitude, after which they are forced to rely on visual judgement, which, during bad weather, becomes a nightmare.
The report also claimed that crosswinds could have led to the Learjet 45 flight "drifting heavily to the right", in Captain Sumit Kapoor's words. Crosswinds here are winds attacking the flight from the side(s).
It added that the landing risk was amplified by the fact that the Baramati runway was a table-top one, which means that it was built on elevated land with steep drops after a point. Apart from the run-off risk, this also may cause visual illusions for the pilots.
The report claims that it was a mix of these factors—not just the aircraft/pilot issues—that contributed to the flight's alleged undershoot landing on its second attempt. An undershoot is an incorrect landing as per which the aircraft moves on a wrong landing path and then touches the ground before the runway.