Sanjay Gandhi to Ajit Pawar: Popular leaders and personalities who died in plane crashes

Ajit Pawar death

• Ajit Pawar and four others died in an aircraft crash near Baramati.
• Crash underscores India's history of air tragedies with prominent leaders.

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Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar died in an aircraft crash near Baramati on Wednesday morning, casting a spotlight on country's grim history of air tragedies claiming prominent lives.

The incident occurred around 8.45 am as the plane attempted to land in an open field. Intial reports indicated five passengers, including Pawar, had sustained serious injuries. Later confirmations from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) declared all five occupants dead.

Social media videos showed the wreckage engulfed in flames, with emergency responders at the scene.

This latest disaster evokes memories of other political heavyweights and prominent figures lost to similar fates, underscoring aviation's perilous undercurrents in India's public life.

A trail of losses in the skies

Vijay Rupani (2025)

Just last year, former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, aged 68 and a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader who helmed the state from 2016 to 2021, perished among 265 victims when Air India Flight AI-171 crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025 afternoon.

CDS Bipin Rawat (2021)

Rewinding further, India's first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others died in a Mi-17V5 helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8, 2021, en route from Sulur to Wellington.

Dorjee Khandu (2011)

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others were killed on April 30, 2011, when their Pawan Hans helicopter went down in a remote area of West Kameng district near the China border, during a flight from Tawang to Itanagar. The wreckage surfaced five days later.

YS Rajasekhara Reddy (2009)

In 2009, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy — popularly known as YSR — died alongside others in a Bell 430 helicopter crash amid the dense Nallamala Hills on September 2, triggered by bad weather. Search teams located the site a day later.

OP Jindal (2005)

Haryana Power Minister and industrialist OP Jindal, alongside former Union Agriculture Minister Surender Singh — son of ex-President Shankar Dayal Sharma — perished in a helicopter crash in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on March 31, 2005, while flying from Delhi to Chandigarh.

Cyprian Sangma (2004)

Meghalaya Rural Development Minister Cyprian Sangma and nine others lost their lives on September 22, 2004, when their Pawan Hans helicopter from Guwahati to Shillong crashed near Barapani lake, 20 km from the capital.

G M C Balayogi (2002)

Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader G M C Balayogi died on March 3, 2002, in a helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna district near Kaikalur. The aircraft, carrying him from Bhimavaram in West Godavari, reportedly suffered a mechanical fault mid-air and plunged into a pond.

Madhavrao Scindia (2001)

Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, a former civil aviation minister from the Gwalior royal family and father of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, was killed on September 30, 2001, when his 10-seater chartered plane crashed in poor weather near Bhogaon in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri district, en route to a Kanpur rally. All aboard perished.

Sanjay Gandhi (1980)

Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and once seen as her political heir, died aged 33 on June 23, 1980, when the two-seater aircraft he was flying during a test flight near Delhi's Safdarjung Airport lost control amid aerial stunts.

Homi Bhabha (1966)

Pioneering nuclear physicist Homi Jehangir Bhabha perished on January 24, 1966, aboard Air India Flight 101, which crashed into Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps due to miscommunication with Geneva air traffic control.

Earlier still, Gujarat's second Chief Minister Balwantrai Mehta was killed on an official visit near the India-Pakistan border when a Pakistani Air Force jet mistakenly shot down his civilian aircraft during the 1965 war.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Gurnam Singh died in a plane crash in Delhi on May 31, 1973.