MUMBAI: The Baramati plane crash that killed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and four others on Wednesday may have been avoided had the airport runway been equipped with an instrument landing system (ILS) to assist pilots during marginal visibility, aviation experts said. They stressed the need to preserve all evidence at the crash site, warning against any tampering, as it would be crucial for the investigation being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). The exact cause of the accident, they said, can only be determined after the probe is completed. Retired pilot Ehsan Khalid said Baramati airport has a small-field runway but it is adequate for aircraft such as the Learjet 45.
“I do not think the runway contributed to the crash, as it occurred before or outside the runway,” he told news agency PTI. However, Khalid said the absence of ILS or other instrument-based guidance systems could have played a role. “If the runway had been equipped with ILS or similar systems to guide the pilot during marginal visibility conditions, this crash could have been avoided,” he said. The reported visibility at the time was “marginal” — neither very good nor poor enough to warrant diversion, he explained. “It was not pure visual flight conditions like clear skies,” Khalid added. According to him, available information suggests the aircraft attempted to land but aborted the first approach and executed a ‘go-around’. “It appears the first approach was a missed approach, and the aircraft was on its second approach when the accident occurred,” he said. Khalid said there is no clear evidence yet on whether the go-around was due to poor visibility, weather, lack of runway contact, or an unstabilised approach. He also noted that Baramati airfield does not have an ILS, meaning pilots must rely largely on visual contact with the runway during poor visibility, with limited assistance from instruments. Describing pilot Sumit Kapoor, who had over 15,000 flying hours and was commanding the Learjet 45, as a “gentle soul”, Khalid said it was too early to speculate. “I do not know what the conditions were in the cockpit, or whether weather combined with a technical fault aggravated the situation,” he said. With no survivors, Khalid said investigators would rely heavily on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR), which would be recovered from the wreckage for forensic analysis. He added that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would have already secured all technical documents related to the aircraft to check for any deficiencies at the time of dispatch. “For VIP flights, technical clearances are extremely important,” he said. Another aviation expert, Sanjay Lazar, also urged authorities to immediately sanitise and cordon off the crash site. “From the visuals, people have surrounded the debris. This is not ideal. Crucial evidence must not be disturbed during the AAIB probe,” he said. Lazar described Baramati airport as well-equipped and said the Learjet 45 is an “extremely safe” aircraft. Refusing to speculate on the cause, he said investigators would have to decode the black box to determine what went wrong. He added that pilots assigned to fly chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and cabinet ministers are highly qualified. “It was a bright sunny day, and there is really no clear reason at this stage to understand why this happened,” Lazar said.The Baramati airstrip, was taken over by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) in July last year, with Pawar himself keen on developing it into a full-fledged airport, sources said.
He had recently held meetings with MADC to finalise development plans. Earlier, the airstrip was under the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) but was handed over to MADC due to its expertise in aviation infrastructure. Unlike a commercial airport, a typical airstrip does not have an air traffic control (ATC) tower. Landings and take-offs rely entirely on pilot skill under visual flight rules (VFR). According to aviation norms, a plane should not attempt to land if visibility is below five kilometres, sources said.
