Minutes after the news of the crash of the chartered plane carrying Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar near Baramati airport around 8.45 am, a large crowd steadily flocked to the crash site. The crowd continued to arrive well into the night as police struggled to keep them at bay.
The chartered private plane was on its final descent when it failed to land safely, slid, struck a rock and exploded. There was five people on board the plane included Ajit Pawar. There were two crew members: one, the pilot in command and the first officer. He was accompanied by Pawar’s personal security officer and an assistant.
Each of the participants tried to figure out what exactly went wrong with the plane. They tried to avoid the police to reach the scene of the accident. Hundreds of them remained rooted to the ground for minutes at a time, simply staring at the shattered remains of the plane whose front and middle parts were blown to pieces. A witness said he saw the plane trying to land but finding it difficult to do so. “The plane was making a lot of noise… It caught my attention. It tried to land but couldn’t do it, it went off the runway, after which there was a big explosion, a big fire… I saw four or five bodies being taken out of the plane,” he said.
Another eyewitness, a local resident living near the airport, said: “When the flight arrived, I saw him fall… I have never seen anything like this. He slipped off the runway and hit a rock. And then he fell again, after which there was a first explosion followed by multiple explosions. The bodies were then thrown out of the plane. We did not know that Ajit Pawar was one of the victims. Some of his followers who had come to meet him told us that one of the bodies was that of Ajitdada.”
Another eyewitness, who works at the airport, said: “When the plane crashed, everyone rushed to remove the bodies. There were loud explosions before we could reach the spot… After a while, when we reached the rubble, we couldn’t recognize the bodies.”
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sandip Singh Gill told reporters that those on board the plane were immediately rushed to Baramati hospital. “Immediately after the accident a fire broke out. Those on board the plane were immediately taken to the local hospital,” he said.
Workers and leaders of the PCN of Baramati and PunePimpri-Chinchwad and nearby talukas were the first to rush towards Baramati. Leaders and workers of other political parties also directly addressed Baramati. By afternoon, a sea of crowd had landed in Baramati town and was seen at all places including the accident site, the hospital where the bodies were kept and the Vidya Pratishtan premises where Ajit Pawar’s body would be kept for people to pay their last respects.
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Among them was Yogesh Choudhari, who rushed to the accident site from Naigaon Peth. “I am speechless. Ajitdada was like an elder brother who stood by our side all the time. Ajitdada was a kind-hearted person. He had come to inaugurate a gram panchayat office. Imagine a Deputy Chief Minister showing such a big heart. All the villagers of Naigaon Peth, Hingangaon and nearby villagers are in a state of shock,” he said.
Baramati resident Deepali Shinde broke down while describing her emotional connection with Ajit Pawar. “When I heard about Ajitdada’s plane crash, I couldn’t believe it. I don’t even want to argue that he died, I don’t think he can die. A human being as simple as he was, how can he die…?” he said.
Sarita Jagtap, another resident of Baramati, who rushed to the accident site, said, “The moment I heard about the accident, I rushed to the accident site. I still can’t believe that he died. I went around the accident site, saw the wreckage and still believe that he will appear from somewhere. What a leader he was… A leader like him will never be born again.”
Deepak Hare said he received a call from a friend in the morning informing him that a plane had crashed near his house. Hare rushed to the scene of the accident. “Everyone said it was Dada’s plane. Three bodies had been removed before and two remained. I helped remove one body. None of the bodies were identifiable because their faces were completely black.”