AIR CRASH
Homi Bhabha: The pioneering nuclear physicist died in a crash aboard Air India Flight 101 on January 24, 1966. The plane crashed into Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps due to a miscommunication with the Geneva air traffic control.
Sanjay Gandhi: Congress leader and son of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed in a crash on June 23, 1980, when he was attempting aerial stunts in a Delhi Flying Club aircraft near Safdarjung airport.
Madhavrao Scindia: The senior Congress leader and former civil aviation minister died on September 30, 2001, in a plane crash en route to a political rally in Kanpur. The 10-seater private aircraft crashed due to poor weather conditions in Uttar Pradesh.
GMC Balayogi: The Lok Sabha Speaker and Telugu Desam Party leader lost his life in a chopper crash on March 3, 2002. The private helicopter carrying him from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district crashed into a pond near Kaikalur in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.
Cyprian Sangma: Meghalaya’s rural development minister and nine others were heading from Guwahati to Shillong on a Pawan Hans helicopter when it crashed near the Barapani lake, 20km from the state capital, on September 22, 2004.
KS Sowmya: The south Indian actress who was popular as Soundarya died in an air crash on April 17, 2004. The Sooryavansham actress was flying from Bengaluru to Karimnagar with her brother.
OP Jindal and Surender Singh: Industrialist and Haryana minister Om Prakash Jindal lost his life in a helicopter crash on March 31, 2005, along with agriculture minister Surender Singh. Their chopper was en route to Chandigarh from Delhi when it crashed in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy: The then Andhra Pradesh chief minister, popularly known as YSR, died on September 2, 2009, when his Bell 430 helicopter crashed in the dense Nallamala forest due to bad weather.
Dorjee Khandu: The Arunachal Pradesh chief minister and four others were killed on April 30, 2011, when a helicopter carrying them from Tawang to Itanagar crashed in West Kameng district.
General Bipin Rawat: India’s first Chief of Defence Staff died in a helicopter crash on December 8, 2021. The incident occurred near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu while he was travelling from Sulur to Wellington with his wife and 11 others.
Vijay Rupani: The former Gujarat chief minister died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025, that also killed close to 250 people.
ROAD ACCIDENTS
Giani Zail Singh: The former President was severely injured when his car collided with a truck at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab’s Ropar district on November 29, 1994. He passed away on December 25.
Rajesh Pilot: The senior Congress leader who held portfolios such as home, telecom and surface transport in the central government died when his jeep collided with a state transport bus in Bhandana on his way to Jaipur airport for a flight to Delhi on June 11, 2000.
Gopinath Munde: The BJP veteran and central minister was on his way to Delhi airport early on June 3, 2014, when his car was hit by a speeding cab between Safdarjung Road and Prithviraj Road. He died hours later after going into cardiac arrest.
Sahib Singh Verma: The former Delhi chief minister died in a road accident in Rajasthan on June 30, 2007.