Ajit Pawar with Devendra Fadnavais
NEW DELHI: As the nation mourns Maharashtra deputy chief minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar in a tragic plane crash, a video of his last aviation-related anecdote has resurfaced on social media.Pawar (66) was killed on Wednesday morning when a Learjet aircraft carrying him and four others crashed near the Baramati airport in Maharashtra’s Pune district.
In the resurfaced video, Pawar is seen recounting a tense helicopter journey he undertook in July 2024 with then deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and industries minister Uday Samant.The incident occurred when the three leaders were flying from Nagpur to Gadchiroli to attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a steel plant amid poor weather conditions.Addressing the gathering after their arrival, Pawar narrated how the helicopter entered thick cloud cover, leaving no visibility outside.Describing the moment, he said, “When we started from Nagpur in the helicopter, it was fine at first. But later, when the helicopter entered the clouds, I looked this way and that way—there were clouds everywhere. And our Devendra Fadnavis was just sitting there, casually chatting.” Pawar went on to recall how he expressed his anxiety to Fadnavis during the flight. “I told him—‘Look outside, we can’t see anything, no trees, no ground, nothing. We are flying blindly through the clouds. Where are we even going?’” he said. According to Pawar, Fadnavis responded calmly, telling him not to worry. “He said—‘Don’t worry at all. I have experienced six such incidents so far. Whenever I am in a helicopter or a plane and an accident occurs, nothing happens to me. So, nothing will happen to you either.’”Pawar added that the reassurance did little to ease his nerves at the time. “I thought to myself—‘My goodness, what is he saying? I already had a sinking feeling in my stomach! Today is Ashadhi Ekadashi, so I was constantly chanting ‘Panduranga, Panduranga’ in my mind. And here was this ‘Maharaj’ giving me advice,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.He later highlighted that despite the fear, the journey ended safely. “It is the good deeds of his elders that we reached here safely; those good deeds helped us,” Pawar remarked. Recalling the moment when the ground finally became visible, he said, “Uday Samant was sitting to my right and said, ‘Dada, Dada, look! The ground is finally visible.’ I said—‘Thank God, we can see the ground now!’ Jokes apart, everyone must take care.”He was travelling from Mumbai to Pune district to address multiple rallies ahead of the February 5 zilla parishad elections. The accident has triggered widespread grief across the political spectrum, with leaders recalling his long public life and distinctive personality.According to officials, the Learjet carrying Pawar attempted a landing at Baramati amid poor visibility and carried out a go-around before being cleared again. Moments after receiving clearance, the aircraft failed to provide a read-back to air traffic control and crashed near the runway, bursting into flames.The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has taken over the probe. Civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu said that the aircraft was trying to land in poor visibility. The jet, operated by VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, was carrying five people on board, including Pawar, his personal security officer Vidip Jadhav, flight attendant Pinky Mali, Captain Sumit Kapoor and co-pilot Shambhavi Pathak. All five were killed.Pawar is survived by his wife Sunetra, a Rajya Sabha member and his two sons, Parth and Jay. The Maharashtra government has announced a three-day state mourning, with his last rites to be held with full state honours in Baramati on Thursday. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and several other leaders have expressed grief over his death.
