'Good morning, Chini': Captain Shambhavi Pathak's last text moments before crash that killed Ajit Pawar

The young pilot texted her grandmother moments before the Baramati-bound flight crashed, killing all five on board.

• Pilot Shambhavi Pathak sent a final text to her grandmother before fatal crash
• Baramati plane crash killed Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and four others
• Grandmother recalls last message and close bond with Shambhavi

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A young pilot killed in the Baramati plane crash sent a final text message to her grandmother moments before the flight took off, turning a routine greeting into a lifelong memory, NDTV reported.

The crash at Baramati Airport on Wednesday morning killed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others on board, including two crew members.

‘Hi, good morning, Dadda’

Before boarding the Baramati-bound aircraft, Captain Shambhavi Pathak texted her grandmother, “Hi, good morning, Dadda,” NDTV reported. Her grandmother, Meera Pathak, replied, “Good morning, Chini,” unaware it would be their last exchange.

“I didn’t know this was the last message,” Meera Pathak said, as quoted by NDTV.

Crash that claimed five lives

The aircraft crashed at around 8:45 am while attempting to land at Baramati Airport in Maharashtra. All five people on board were killed, including Ajit Pawar, his personal security officer, an attendant, and two crew members.

Waiting for a reply that never came

According to NDTV, Meera Pathak, who lives alone in Gwalior’s Basant Vihar, sat staring at her phone after news of the crash broke, hoping for another message from her granddaughter.

“My eldest son told me there had been a plane crash,” she recalled. “Last night, I even asked him, ‘Where is Chini?’ She didn’t message me usually. I don’t know how she remembered me today,” she said, as per NDTV.

A call that confirmed the fear

Meera Pathak said Shambhavi’s father, Vikram Pathak, called her around 9 am on Wednesday. “He was crying. He said he would call me back and disconnected. I had already heard about the crash,” she told NDTV.

Two hours later, she learned that her granddaughter was among those killed.

‘She was more than a granddaughter’

Shambhavi, a native of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, shared a close bond with her grandmother. “She called me Dadda, not Dadi,” Meera Pathak said. “After my husband passed away, she used to say I was her grandfather too. We didn’t talk often, but whenever we did, we spoke for a long time,” she said, according to NDTV.