New Delhi: Did the Learjet aircraft carrying five people including Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar crash because of defective landing gear? Aviation watchdog DGCA sources told ThePrint they suspect one of the reasons for the fatal crash may have been issues with the landing gear—a recurrent problem with the Learjet 45 aircraft. In fact, US-based National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had flagged such “defects” in the Learjet in 2025.
Moreover, the Learjet had also been involved in three accidents worldwide in the past—in 2022, 2023 and 2025—all three related to landing issues.
However, officials said the cause of the crash will be confirmed only after the preliminary inquiry launched Wednesday is complete.
“It is a tabletop runway, and the crash occurred at the tip of the runway. The incident happened during an attempted landing, possibly due to defects in the landing gear, but all these details are subject to a detailed probe,” a DGCA official familiar with the development told ThePrint.
According to NTSB’s report, the flaws in the Learjet 35 became evident during a probe into a February 2025 runway collision in Arizona. In its probe, NTSB, an independent US agency responsible for investigating civil transport accidents, found that the aircraft began skidding left from the landing point and exited the runway before striking a parked jet.
Following the discovery, the NTSB issued an urgent recommendation that Learjet-manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace revise procedures to ensure the landing gear and retaining bolt are properly positioned.
The left main landing gear had separated in the Arizona incident, the NTSB had found, and the accident had left the pilot of the Learjet aircraft dead, and the first officer and a passenger on the Learjet were seriously injured.
In the same report, the NTSB flagged that the same flight crew had another landing mishap on the same aircraft in June 2024 in Oklahoma, when the aircraft landed hard just short of the runway surface and bounced several times. As a result of the hard landing, both left main landing gear tyres had burst.
‘Turned sharply to the right’
Earlier in April 2022, the NTSB had flagged another landing issue with a Learjet aircraft, quoting the cabin crew, who had reported that the plane had turned “sharply to the right” and that all control inputs were “ineffective” in maintaining directional control.
“Airport surveillance video footage of the landing roll and accident sequence showed that, about 9 seconds into the landing roll, the aeroplane turned sharply to its right. The airplane departed the runway, its left wingtip struck the ground, the entire wing structure (left wing/right wing/wingbox) separated from the airplane as one assembly, and the fuselage continued a short distance before it came to rest upright,” the NTSB had documented the near-mishap that took place in April 2022 at the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey.
Similarly, on 14 September 2023, the crew flying a Learjet 45XR aircraft between Visakhapatnam and Mumbai attempted to land on a runway at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport but the aircraft continued drifting to the right of the intended landing runway and finally crash-landed, causing damage to the fuselage (central tube of the aircraft’s body that connects all components).
The crash landing was quickly followed by a fire that engulfed the aircraft, but it was extinguished promptly, and all six occupants were rescued.
The impact of the 2023 crash was so powerful that the aircraft was completely destroyed and its broken parts were flung away from the initial site of the crash landing. The crew too was severely injured. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is yet to submit its report on this crash.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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