Mumbai: Fate has a way of playing tricks on people when they are expecting it the least.
This seems to have been the case with Captain Sumit Kapoor, the Pilot In-Charge (PIC) of the ill-fated Bombardier Learjet 45 that crashed in Baramati on Wednesday, killing Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and everybody else on board.
Kapoor’s family and friends are not ready to accept the preliminary finding of ‘pilot misjudgement’ as a possible cause behind the crash, and have called for a thorough probe.
In fact, Kapoor wasn’t even supposed to fly the aircraft that day. He was filling in for a colleague who had got caught up in traffic, friends said.
The pilot, who had returned from Hong Kong a few days ago, received orders to fly the aircraft with Pawar to Baramati just a few hours before the tragic incident, his friends told NDTV during his funeral in Delhi.
Kapoor was told that he had to fly Pawar from Mumbai to his hometown Baramati for election rallies. Around 8 am, Kapoor took off in the aircraft operated by Delhi-based company VSR Ventures with Pawar and three others on board.
Investigation so far has revealed that the crash occurred around 8.45 am while attempting a second approach to Baramati Airport. All five on board, including Pawar, Kapoor, his co-pilot, Captain Shambhavi Pathak, flight attendant Pinky Mali, and the politician’s security guard, Vidip Jadhav, died in the crash.
While the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has taken up the investigation into the crash, poor visibility or a technical snag in the aircraft are possible causes.
Kapoor’s friends claimed that he had extensive flying experience and the possibility of him making a mistake was negligible.
They described him as a “very kind” person who loved flying more than anything else.
The friends said that both Kapoor’s son and son-in-law are pilots. His son and daughter are both married. He also has a businessman brother based in Gurugram.
His body was identified by the bracelet he was wearing on his wrist, a friend said. Another said that no one could believe Kapoor had died when they heard about the crash.
G S Grover, another friend of the pilot, said that Kapoor had spoken to him at length after returning from Hong Kong and had advised him to take special care of his health.
