New Delhi: Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who died in a tragic airplane crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday, has joined the record of a number of high Indian politicians and distinguished personalities who misplaced their lives in aviation accidents. Rupani was on the London-bound flight that crashed moments after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Worldwide Airport, killing 241 of the 242 individuals on board.
Here’s a record of the highest politicians and distinguished figures who misplaced their lives in air tragedies:
* Homi Bhabha (1966)
India’s pioneering nuclear physicist Homi Jehangir Bhabha died in a tragic crash aboard Air India Flight 101 on January 24, 1966. The airplane crashed into Mont Blanc within the Swiss Alps because of a miscommunication with the Geneva air visitors management.
* Sanjay Gandhi (1980)
Congress chief and son of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi died in a tragic crash on June 23, 1980. Making an attempt aerial stunts in a Delhi Flying Membership plane close to the Safdarjung Airport, the airplane misplaced management and crashed.
* Madhavrao Scindia (2001)
Senior Congress chief Madhavrao Scindia, himself a former civil aviation minister, died on September 30, 2001, in a airplane crash en route a political rally in Kanpur. The ten-seater personal plane crashed because of poor climate circumstances close to Manipuri in Uttar Pradesh.
* GMC Balayogi (2002)
Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Occasion chief G M C Balayogi died in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002, when a non-public helicopter carrying him from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district crashed right into a pond close to Kaikalur in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.
* Cyprian Sangma (2004)
Meghalaya’s Rural Improvement Minister Cyprian Sangma and 9 others, who had been heading from Guwahati to Shillong on a Pawan Hans helicopter, had been killed when the chopper crashed close to the Barapani lake, simply 20 km from the state capital, on September 22, 2004.
* Ok S Sowmya (2004)
Well-known South Indian actress Ok S Sowmya, widespread as Soundarya, misplaced her life in an air crash on April 17, 2004. The “Sooryavansham” actress was flying from Bengaluru to Karimnagar together with her brother on the time of the crash.
* O P Jindal and Surender Singh (2005)
Industrialist and Haryana minister Om Prakash Jindal misplaced his life in a helicopter crash in 2005 together with Agriculture Minister Surender Singh. Their chopper was en route Chandigarh from Delhi when it crashed in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.
* Y S Reddy (2009)
Then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (2009), popularly generally known as YSR, died on September 2, 2009, when his Bell 430 helicopter crashed within the dense Nallamala forest because of dangerous climate.
* Dorjee Khandu (2011)
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and 4 others had been killed on April 30, 2011, when a helicopter carrying them from Tawang to Itanagar crashed in West Kameng district of the state.
* CDS Basic Bipin Rawat (2021)
India’s first Chief of Defence Workers, Basic Bipin Rawat, died in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021. The incident occurred close to Coonoor in Tamil Nadu whereas he was en route from Sulur to Wellington along with his spouse and 11 others.
