India, Jan. 29 -- A pall of grief hung over the Safdarjung Enclave residence of Captain Shambhavi Pathak on Wednesday, curtains drawn and visitors moving in silence, as her mother, who was planning to get her married, grappled with the devastating loss of her daughter in a plane crash in Maharashtra's Baramati earlier in the day.

Pathak, aged around 25 years, was one of the five people killed in the crash of a VSR Ventures Learjet 45 that had Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on board. The aircraft that had taken off from Mumbai crashed minutes before its scheduled landing, officials said.

At Pathak's southwest Delhi home, her mother, a teacher at the Air Force Bal Bharati School, was inconsolable. Her father, a retired Army ...