top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Trainer plane hard-lands near Baramati

Mumbai: In a shocker, a small trainer aircraft belonging to a private aviation company hard-landed near the Baramati Airfield on Wednesday, sparking fresh concerns over aviation safety in a region that has been witness to several aircraft-related incidents in the past few months. The two-seater, single-engine aircraft belongs to Redbird Flight Training Academy (RFTA) and it crash-landed near the Baramati Airfield this morning around 8.50 am. There are no casualties reported in the incident...

Trainer plane hard-lands near Baramati

Mumbai: In a shocker, a small trainer aircraft belonging to a private aviation company hard-landed near the Baramati Airfield on Wednesday, sparking fresh concerns over aviation safety in a region that has been witness to several aircraft-related incidents in the past few months. The two-seater, single-engine aircraft belongs to Redbird Flight Training Academy (RFTA) and it crash-landed near the Baramati Airfield this morning around 8.50 am. There are no casualties reported in the incident though the Italian-made plane is reported to have suffered minor damage. Confirming the mishap, Pune (Rural) Superintendent of Police Sandeep Singh Gill told mediapersons that the plane crash landed near Gojubavi village, adjacent to the Baramati Airfield. In a terse statement later, the RFTA said: “This is to inform that our aircraft, a Tecnam P2008JC bearing registration VT-RFY, was involved in an incident at Gojubavi in the vicinity of Baramati Airport. As per the preliminary information received, the aircraft was undertaking a solo flight at the time of the occurrence. The cadet pilot is reported to be safe,” it said. When contacted in New Delhi, a senior RFTA official, Dr. Ritu Grover, told The Perfect Voice that they had no further information on the accident including the identity of the trainee pilot. According to initial information, the aircraft developed a technical glitch while cruising at a low altitude while on a routine practice flight, forcing the trainee pilot to attempt an emergency landing but it hard-landed. “During the crash landing, a part of the aircraft grazed an electric light pole before it came down on the ground. Only one trainee pilot was on board the aircraft and fortunately, no serious injuries were reported in the incident,” Gill said. Upon receiving information from the locals, a police team rushed to the accident spot and cordoned off the site. The injured trainee pilot was taken for treatment while local aviation officials launched a probe into the incident. The police said that further details would be released after a technical assessment of the aircraft and ascertaining the causes leading to the disaster. Incidentally, this is believed to be the third mishap involving the Tecnam aircraft including in 2021 and 2023 in different places. The RFTA is one of the two major pilot training institutes operating from the Baramati aviation hub. The region has emerged as a centre for aviation training, with institutes like RFTA and the Carver Aviation conducting regular training sorties from the airfield. Today’s incident brought focus on the safety record of aviation training operations in Baramati, particularly around Gojubavi village, where multiple aircraft mishaps have been reported in recent years. The latest crash comes barely four months after the January 28 Learjet crash near here that had sent shockwaves across the state and national political circles. The mishap had claimed the life of then Maharashtra deputy chief minister and ex-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit A. Pawar along with four others, making it one of the deadliest aviation incidents in the region in recent memory. Locals recall that similar trainer aircraft disasters involving RRFTA planes had occurred in the vicinity in the past, raising concerns over recurring technical failures and emergency landings dangerously close to populated areas. The aviation authorities are likely to examine whether mechanical failure, pilot error, or operational lapses led to today’s hard-landing at Baramati Airfield. Hazardous Airfield A preliminary probe report by the AAIB into the Learjet 45XR – owned by VSR Ventures Ltd – that crashed on Jan. 28 killing Ajit Pawar and others, had made certain stinging observations on the facilities at Baramati Airfield, managed and maintained by the Maharashtra Airport Development Co. Ltd. Besides the two private aviation training academies, it regularly handles non-scheduled operations, including Chartered/VIP flights. In a shocker, it also stated how the two ATC towers there are manned flying instructors or students, including training flights and VVIP operations.

Unrest within Mahayuti

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

Comments

bottom of page