‘Calm, composed, disciplined’: BFC recalls co-pilot lost in Baramati air crash

Shambhav Pathak the copilot of chartered aircraft VTSSK that crashed at Baramati on Wednesday was among the five people killed With around 1500 flying hours and a Commercial Pilotrsquos Licence Pathak had graduated from the Bombay Flying Club BFC in 2022Faculty members at BFC remembered her as a calm composed and disciplined studentKavita Parab HOD and senior executive at BFC told midday ldquoShe was one of those students who knew how to manage her life well Despite having a primary job she never missed exams and always maintained discipline to excel in every areardquoPathak had joined BFC during her second year of BSc studies at Mumbai University and began direct practical and theoretical flight training She stood out as a highperforming student scoring a GPA of 993 out of 10 ldquoThat itself shows how dedicated she was to aviationrdquo a faculty member saidThe crash occurred at around 845 am when the VSR Venturesoperated Bombardier Learjet 45 VTSSK attempted to land at the threshold of Runway 11 at Baramati Airport Air Traffic Control personnel witnessed the aircraft going up in flames after impactAccording to information released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA the five people on board were PilotinCommand Sumit Kapoor Copilot Shambhavi Pathak cabin attendant Pinky Mali Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Mumbai PSO HC Vidit Jadhav The impact and the subsequent fire claimed all five livesSecond crashVTSSK was a 16yearold aircraft and one of seven Learjet 45 aircraft owned by the operator This is the second aircraft from the operatorrsquos fleet to be involved in an accident in the last five yearsThe earlier incident involved aircraft VTDBL which met with an accident while landing at Mumbai airport The investigation is being conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau AAIBAccording to the preliminary report the incident occurred on September 14 2023 ldquoAt 113133 UTC the crew had runway in sight and they decided to land on Runway 27 The aircraft continuously drifted right of the Runway 27 and moved towards Apron C About 40 seconds after the autopilot was disconnected a Stick Shaker alert sounded in the cockpit accompanied by a Stall warning Thereafter EGPWS warnings were generated and the aircraft crashlanded at the shoulder of the intersection of Taxiway W and Taxiway N As a result the aircraftrsquos fuselage broke into two pieces and skidded finally coming to a stop near the intersection of Taxiway U and Taxiway N on an unpaved area near stand C80rdquo the report statedBaramati airport Uncontrolled airfield No operating ATC tower pilots are responsible for safety maintaining separation and coordinating traffic Runway Single runway 1129 1770 metres long and 30 metres wide with turning pads at both ends Advisory tower Flight advisories are provided by senior pilots from an adjacent aviation academy due to the absence of a full ATC facility845 amTime of the accident