Aircraft in Baramati crash identified as Learjet 45 VT-SSK
The Economic Times reports the aircraft that crashed near Baramati on 28 January 2026, killing Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others, was registered VT-SSK; the cause has not been determined.
By AI ReporterFirst reported Jan 28, 2026, 6:43 a.m. ETWritten Aug 9, 2026, 10:52 p.m. ET
The aircraft involved in the 28 January 2026 crash near , Maharashtra, has been identified as a registered , according to reporting by the Economic Times. Indian aircraft registry records list as a Learjet, a twin-engine jet landplane registered in . The Times of and the Economic Times report the aircraft was operated by and that the crash occurred during .
people were killed, according to the Times of , among them Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The cause has not been determined. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are named by both outlets as investigating.
Accounts of where the inquiry stands differ between the outlets and neither outweighs the other. The Economic Times reports the AAIB has sought assistance from the Accredited Representative of the State of Manufacture, the United States, for specialised support in retrieving cockpit voice recorder data, that the investigation is being conducted under the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017 and ICAO Annex 13, and that the AAIB asked stakeholders to avoid speculation. The Times of reports the regulator said a multi-disciplinary audit team found "several non-compliances of approved procedures in the organisation in the area of airworthiness, air safety, and flight operations."
Per the reporting, both flight recorders were exposed to intense heat for a prolonged period and sustained fire damage. The Digital Flight Data Recorder, manufactured by L3-Communications, was successfully downloaded at the AAIB's Flight Recorder Laboratory; the Cockpit Voice Recorder, manufactured by Honeywell, is undergoing detailed technical examination. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said the preliminary report would be released soon.
The Times of reports the DGCA ordered the immediate grounding of four Learjet 40/45 aircraft operated by , registered VT-VRA, VT-VRS, VT-VRV and VT-TRI, and asked the company to submit a root cause analysis of the non-compliances found in its special safety audit. Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 indicates the aircraft attempted a visual to Runway 11 at , aborted the landing and performed a go-around, climbing to around 2,800 feet, with the last signal received at 08:43 IST west-northwest of the runway shortly before the crash. airport does not appear to be equipped with an automatic weather observation system; the nearest airport issuing a valid METAR was Navi Mumbai International Airport (VANM), and the Mumbai METAR indicated reduced visibility of 1,800 metres due to haze, though experts quoted caution those conditions may have been localised to Mumbai. None of this establishes a cause.
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