Meera Pathak would have never imagined that a simple good morning message from her grandaughter Captain Shambhavi Pathak, would soon become a memory etched in grief.
Pathak was the co-pilot of the ill-fated Learjet 45 aircraft that crashed in Baramati of Pune district in Maharashtra on Wednesday, killing all 5 on board, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
On Wednesday morning at around 6:30 am, Pathak sent a brief message, “Hi, good morning, Dadda", to her grandmother in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.
Less than three hours later, at about 8:45 am, the plane crashed at Baramati Airport. Among the victims was Captain Shambhavi Pathak, a young pilot from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. By the time the news reached her family, the phone that carried her final message had fallen silent forever.
A Grandmother’s Waiting and a Growing Dread
Meera Pathak lives alone at house number D-61 in Basant Vihar, Gwalior. Though much of her family has moved to Delhi, her home remains filled with memories of a little girl affectionately called Chini. On Wednesday morning, she sat clutching her phone, tears streaming down her face.
“I didn’t know this was the last message,” she said, her voice trembling, reported NDTV.
The sense of unease came early. Her eldest son mentioned that a plane had crashed. “Just last night, I asked him, ‘Where is Chini?’ She mostly lived in Mumbai. She didn’t call me often, and she rarely messaged. I don’t know how she remembered me today,” Meera recalled.
Around 9 a.m., Shambhavi’s father, Vikram Pathak, called. He was crying. He said he would call back and disconnected. “By then, I had already heard about the crash. In my heart, I knew something was wrong,” she said. Two hours later, the confirmation arrived. Shambhavi was gone.
A Bond That Went Beyond Words
For Meera Pathak, Shambhavi was more than a granddaughter. “She called me Dadda, not Dadi,” she said. “After my husband passed away, she used to tell me I was her grandfather too.” Their conversations may not have been frequent, but they were never rushed. “Whenever we spoke, we spoke for a long time.”
Shambhavi had recently visited Madhya Pradesh with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and spent an hour or two with her grandmother. The bond deepened last year, when her grandfather died. Shambhavi stayed with Meera for 13 days, refusing to leave her side.
Passion For The Sky
Born in Murar, Gwalior, Shambhavi spent much of her childhood there. Aviation was woven into her life from the start. Her grandfather, Shri Kishan Pathak, retired as a wing commander from the Air Force, while her father served as a group captain in the Indian Air Force. “When my son went to the Kargil War, her mother brought her here,” Meera said. “She grew up watching planes and listening to stories of the sky.”
Her education followed that calling. She joined Air Force Vidya Bharati School in Gwalior in 2006 and later studied at Air Force Delhi Public Secondary School from 2016 to 2018. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics, Aviation, and Aerospace Science and Technology from the University of Mumbai.
Her professional training took her overseas. Shambhavi completed her commercial pilot and flight training at the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy. She later worked as an assistant flight instructor at the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, held a Flight Instructor Rating ‘A’, and possessed a Frozen Airline Transport Pilot License issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.“She was brilliant from childhood,” her grandmother said quietly. “She always wanted to fly.”
On Wednesday, that lifelong dream ended in tragedy.
Back in the quiet house in Basant Vihar, Meera Pathak keeps returning to her phone, to a message that arrived like any other morning greeting. Today, it stands as a painful reminder of love, loss, and a life that soared and was taken far too soon.