Mumbai: The aircraft carrying Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after multiple attempts, but having finally received landing clearance, it did not give any 'read-back' or response to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway, PTI reports.
The aircraft was trying to land amid poor visibility, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said earlier. A statement by his ministry recounted the final minutes of the ill-fated Learjet 45 belonging to VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd that crashed, leading to the death of all five persons on board, including Pawar.
Baramati has an 'uncontrolled airfield', and traffic information is provided by the instructors/pilots from the flying training organisations at Baramati.
The aircraft VI-SSK first came in contact at 8.18 am, as per the Baramati Air Traffic Control (ATC).
Its next call was at 30 nautical miles inbound to Baramati. It was advised to descend in "visual meteorological conditions" at the pilot's discretion.
The crew enquired about the winds and visibility, and were informed that the winds were calm and visibility was around 3,000 metres.
"Next the aircraft reported on the final approach of Runway 11 and the runway was not in sight to them. They initiated a go-around in the first approach," the civil aviation ministry statement said.
After the go-around, the crew was again asked if they could spot the runway.
The reply was: "Runway is currently not in sight, will call when runway is in sight".
After a few seconds, the crew reported that they could spot the runway.
"The aircraft was cleared to land on runway 11 at 0843 IST (8.43 am). However, they did not give a readback of the landing clearance (did not respond to ATC). Next, the ATC saw the flames around the threshold of runway 11 at 0844 IST (8.44 am)," the statement said.