Ajit Pawar Plane Crash: Reconstructing the Last Moments through Flight Data On a foggy January morning that seemed to blanket the day in melancholy, horrific images of the charter plane crash in Pune surfaced everywhere. A private jet carrying Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar crashed during a landing attempt. The tragic accident claimed the lives of Ajit Pawar and four others. The Learjet 45, registration VT-SSK, operated by VSR, met its fate in Baramati.
India Today's OSINT team accessed and verified the plane's flight-tracking details through two commercial flight data aggregators. Flight data indicates that before crashing, the plane attempted a second landing at Baramati Airport.
Source: aajtak
Source: aajtak
The plane first appeared on radar around 7:56 AM shortly after taking off from Mumbai. It was fully airborne by approximately 8:10 AM. As it approached Baramati, maintaining the landing path, it disappeared from radar at 8:37 AM, about 20 kilometers from the Baramati airstrip.
According to Flightradar24's open-source flight-tracking platform, the plane reappeared less than two minutes later, around 8:39 AM. The track showed a curved arc, suggesting a go-around maneuver, interrupting landing to regain altitude and attempt a second descent.
Following this maneuver, the aircraft was last seen on radar at approximately 8:43 AM.
Source: aajtak
India Today analyzed the flight path and altitude data to piece together events leading up to the crash.
The data revealed that as the plane approached Baramati, it was gradually descending before the first radar disappearance. When it reappeared at 8:39 AM, an altitude increase was noted, typical for a second landing attempt.
Following the maneuver, the track and altitude data signify that the plane descended again, signaling a touchdown attempt, and vanished from radar shortly thereafter.
Source: aajtak
India Today geolocated the viral crash video footage shared on social media. It confirmed the crash occurred a mere 50 meters from Baramati airstrip.
The video features nearby residential structures, slight terrain elevation, and tree patterns that match satellite imagery, confirming the plane's proximity to the runway when it went down.
This tragic incident unfolded around 8:45 AM near Baramati runway. Videos online show dense smoke rising from debris scattered in an open field.
The aircraft was a Learjet 45 XR, registration VT-SSK. This mid-sized, twin-engine business jet, manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace, typically boasts a range of 2,000 to 2,235 nautical miles.
The jet is owned and operated by Delhi-based VSR Ventures Limited, primarily used for corporate travel. Developed in the 1990s to rival the popular Cessna Citation Excel / SSK, the Learjet 45's hallmark is its traditional high-speed performance, albeit lacking stand-up cabin space.
