In the wake of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Ajit Pawar’s tragic death in a plane crash at Baramati on Wednesday, aviation experts and friends of the pilot have shared insights on possible causes of the accident.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Captain (retired) Ehsan Khalid, a former Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot and a longtime friend of Captain Sumit Kapur, the deceased pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, said, “It was a tragic incident. I have known the pilot since my Sahara days, almost two decades ago. He was an experienced pilot. I am told that as the plane was making its first approach, it had to go around and make a second approach. I do not know whether the first approach was abandoned due to bad visibility alone, or whether technical issues also played a role. To my knowledge, no call of technical malfunction has been reported.”