The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) investigation into VSR Ventures’s Learjet 45 plane crash from September 2023 is in “final stages” and the investigating team is trying to finalise the report on top priority, the probe agency said in a statement Monday. The comment from AAIB comes just days after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed when another Learjet 45 operated by VSR crashed in Maharashtra’s Baramati.
Following last week’s crash, the AAIB had come under criticism from certain quarters over the delay in the release of the final investigation report of the 2023 accident, given that the same aircraft type and the same charter flight operator were involved in that crash.
“The investigation team prepared a detailed preliminary report on the accident which included the initial outcome of the flight recorders and published the report on AAIB website. The investigation team has analysed all the evidence and other documents. The investigation is in final stages. The investigation team is trying their best to finalise the report on top priority,” the AAIB said Monday.
On September 14, 2023, a VSR-operated Learjet 45—flying from Visakhapatnam to Mumbai—crash landed while attempting to land in Mumbai amid “heavy rains and reduced visibility”, as per information available in the preliminary probe report released by the AAIB. There were eight people—two pilots and six passengers—on board the 14-year-old jet (registered as VT- DBL), and they all survived the accident.
“The aircraft took off normally from Visakhapatnam and the flight en route was uneventful. The aircraft established contact with Mumbai tower and was instructed to prepare for landing. The aircraft was cleared to land on Runway 27 and was given landing clearance at 113109 UTC (5:01 pm IST). At the time of landing, Mumbai Airport was experiencing heavy rains and reduced visibility,” the AAIB said in its preliminary investigation report into the accident.
It is not clear what other factors might have contributed to the crash. Aircraft accident preliminary probe reports usually don’t delve too much into the causes and largely provide details of what happened.
According to the initial probe report on the VT-DBL accident, the aircraft continuously drifted right as it approached the runway, and about 40 seconds after the autopilot was disconnected, an alert sounded in the cockpit accompanied by a warning that the aircraft could stall. This was followed by ground proximity warnings, and the aircraft then crash landed at the shoulder of the intersection of two taxiways of the Mumbai airport.
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“As a result, the aircraft’s 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…Following the crash, a fire broke out and fire tenders rushed to the site and extinguished the fire. All occupants of the aircraft were evacuated, but they sustained various injuries due to the impact and were immediately admitted to the nearest hospital. Passengers and PIC (pilot in command) were discharged after precautionary treatment. The co-pilot received serious injuries and was admitted for a longer time,” the preliminary probe report said.
The Learjet 45 is a mid-size business jet aircraft manufactured by Canada’s Bombardier Aerospace, with around 640 such planes built during its manufacturing run between 1995 and 2012. According to the DGCA database, the Delhi-based VSR had a fleet of 17 aircraft, including the one that crashed last Wednesday (January 28). The AAIB has started its investigation into the fatal crash.
The plane involved in last week’s accident was a 15-year-old jet bearing registration VT-SSK. It took off from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at around 8:10 am and disappeared from the radar at about 8:45 am, as per the flight tracking data from Flightradar24. According to preliminary information provided by the government, the plane had crashed at around 8:44 am. The flight path shows the aircraft making a loop to line up with the runway as it prepared to land at the Baramati airport, before disappearing from the flight tracker. Along with Pawar, there were four others on board the ill-fated aircraft—Pawar’s personal security officer, one attendant, and two pilots.
Initial information from the crash site indicates that low visibility conditions in the area might have played a major role in the accident. VSR’s Director Vijay Kumar Singh also said that it appears that the pilots faced visibility issues. The aircraft’s captain was highly experienced with over 15,000 flying hours under his belt, while the co-pilot had over 1,500 hours.
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The Baramati airport is a regional airstrip used primarily for pilot training and private plane operations, and does not have navigational aids to help pilots operate during low visibility. They are required to land by visually navigating to the airport in the absence of navigational aids, which can be challenging if visibility is poor. Also, Baramati is an uncontrolled airfield, which means that pilots operate there visually by avoiding other aircraft and maintaining self-separation, and use radio communication to operate at such airports. At the Baramati airport, traffic information is provided by the instructors or pilots from the flying schools there.