Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed after their aircraft crashed at Baramati on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.
Famous Indians Who Died In Air Crashes
Ajit Pawar
When the Learjet 45, a mid-size business jet aircraft carrying the Maharashtra deputy chief minister and four others, was trying to land in Baramati on January 28, 2026, it crashed and burst into flames.
Homi Bhabha (1966)
India's pioneering nuclear physicist died on January 24, 1966 when an Air India aircraft crashed into Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps.
Mohan Kumaramangalam (1973)
Minister of steel in the Indira Gandhi government and one of her principal advisers, he was killed when Indian Airlines 440 crashed as it approached Palam airport in New Delhi.
Sanjay Gandhi (1980)
Congress leader and then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son died on June 23, 1980 when attempting aerial stunts in a Delhi Flying Club aircraft near Safdarjung airport, he lost control and the plane crashed.
Madhavrao Scindia (2001)
The senior Congress leader died on September 30, 2001 in a plane crash en route to a political rally in Kanpur. The 10-seater aircraft crashed due to poor weather conditions near Manipuri in Uttar Pradesh.
G M C Balayogi (2002)
The Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader died in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002, when a helicopter carrying him from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district crashed into a pond near Kaikalur in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh.
K S Sowmya (2004)
The South Indian actress popularly known as Soundarya lost her life in an air crash on April 17, 2004. The Sooryavansham actress was flying from Bengaluru to Karimnagar with her brother at the time of the crash.
O P Jindal and Surender Singh (2005)
Industrialist and Haryana minister Jindal lost his life in a helicopter crash in 2005 along with state Agriculture Minister Surender Singh. Their chopper was en route to Chandigarh from Delhi when it crashed in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (2009)
The then Andhra Pradesh chief minister, popularly known as YSR, died on September 2, 2009, when his Bell 430 helicopter crashed in the dense Nallamala forest due to bad weather.
Dorjee Khandu (2011)
The then Arunachal Pradesh chief minister and four others were killed on April 30, 2011, when a helicopter carrying them from Tawang to Itanagar crashed in West Kameng district of the state.
General Bipin Rawat (2021)
India's first Chief of Defence Staff died in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021 near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu while the general was en route from Sulur to Wellington with his wife and 11 others.
Vijay Rupani (2025)
The former Gujarat chief minister was on the London-bound flight that crashed moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, killing 241 of the 242 persons on board.
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