Vijay Rupani Dies in Air India Crash: Gujarat Mourns Another CM Lost to Air Tragedy After Six Decades
Vijay Rupani Dies in Air India Crash: Gujarat Mourns Another CM Lost to Air Tragedy After Six Decades
Gujarat was plunged into mourning on Thursday as Vijay Rupani, the state’s former chief minister (2016–2021) and a senior BJP leader, was confirmed among the victims of the Air India AI-171 crash near Ahmedabad. The tragedy has reopened old wounds, echoing the 1965 death of Gujarat’s second CM, Balwantrai Mehta, in another aviation disaster.
Rupani, 68, was one of the 242 people aboard the ill-fated Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed into the Meghani Nagar residential area just five minutes after takeoff. Eyewitnesses recounted a massive explosion and billows of black smoke, as firefighters and emergency teams rushed to the scene.
The London-bound flight was captained by Sumit Sabharwal, with Clive Kunder as co-pilot. As rescue operations continue and the death toll mounts, Rupani’s name has been officially confirmed on the passenger list.
This incident marks the second time Gujarat has lost a chief minister in an air tragedy. In September 1965, Balwantrai Mehta—a prominent Gandhian and Gujarat’s second CM—was killed when his Beechcraft plane was mistakenly shot down by Pakistani fighter jets during the Indo-Pak war. Along with him, his wife, aides, and two crew members also perished. Despite being a civilian aircraft, the Pakistani Air Force had misidentified the plane as a military threat. The country never formally apologized for the strike.
Such tragedies have not been limited to Gujarat. In 2009, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, died in a helicopter crash in the Nallamala hills due to inclement weather and technical failure. Two years later, in 2011, Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorjee Khandu lost his life in a helicopter crash amid treacherous mountain weather—his body was only found days later at an altitude of over 13,000 feet.
The crash that claimed Vijay Rupani’s life is now part of a somber list of aviation disasters that have robbed India of prominent political leaders mid-flight.
