Last Updated:January 28, 2026, 19:27 IST
Pinky was an attendant on the Learjet 46, operated by Delhi-based VSR Ventures, that crash-landed at the Baramati airport.
TL;DR: Baramati Plane Crash: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board an aircraft were killed after it crashed near the Baramati airport on Wednesday.
Baramati Plane Crash: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board an aircraft were killed after it crashed near the Baramati airport on Wednesday.
According to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), there were five passengers, including Pawar, his Personal Security Officer and an attendant, along with two crew members (pilot in-command and the first officer) on board.
The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
Meanwhile, Mali’s distraught father, Shivkumar Mali said his daughter had promised to speak to him “tomorrow", but that moment will never come.
The emotional father, while speaking to news agency PTI, recounted his last conversation with his daughter. “Pappa, I am flying to Baramati tomorrow (Wednesday) with DCM Ajit Pawar. After dropping him, I will go to Nanded and will speak to you once I reach the hotel…" Shivkumar, a resident of Prabhadevi in Central Mumbai, said.
He mentioned that she had been accompanying Pawar on several recent trips. Pinky was an attendant on the Learjet 46, operated by Delhi-based VSR Ventures, that crash-landed at the Baramati airport. She had flown with the President, Chief Ministers and several political leaders.
The father, who is also an activist of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that Pawar headed, said a local politician named Samadhan Sarvankar informed him about Ajit Pawar’s plane crash.
“I switched on the television. The news left me shocked," he said.
The father and daughter had last met on January 16, when Pinky visited Prabhadevi from Thane to cast her vote in the civic polls. Shivkumar said they spoke frequently.
“During a recent flight with Ajit Pawar, my daughter complained to him that he was travelling across Maharashtra but was not paying attention to NCP activists. When Pawar asked her why she felt so, Pinky told him that I have been an NCP worker for 35 years," Shivkumar said, adding the interaction had elicited a call from the deputy CM’s side.
“As I was driving a car, the call went unanswered. Then I got a message that Pawar wanted to speak to me," he said. Even that call will never happen, he added.
Overwhelmed, Shivkumar said, “I have lost my daughter. I do not know what exactly happened, as I have no technical knowledge about such incidents. I am completely shattered. I just want my daughter’s body so that I can perform her last rites with dignity. That is all I wish for," he stated.
Pinky had been working as a flight attendant for the last five years. She started with Air India and moved to private chartered flights after a couple of years, he said.
Baramati Plane Crash
The aircraft, Learjet 45, on which Pawar was travelling, was scheduled to take off at 7 AM instead, it took off at 8:10 AM, and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) received information about the crash at 9:12 AM.
It was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance it did not give any read-back to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway.
The Maharashtra government has announced three days of state mourning and declared a public holiday in Ajit Pawar’s honour.
The last rites will be held on Thursday at the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati, an educational institution started by the Pawar family. Preparations for the cremation have already begun at the site. The funeral will take place at 11 am.
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