Crew error behind near-crash of Rahul Gandhi’s plane: DGCA report

The Congress had sought an investigation after an aircraft carrying party president Rahul Gandhi and four others from Delhi to Hubli developed a glitch.

india Updated: Aug 31, 2018 18:38 IST

According to a complaint filed by Congress functionary Kaushik Vidyarthee, the special flight that took off from Delhi had developed “unexplained technical failures”.(PTI File Photo)

Delayed action by the flight crew led to a near crash of the chartered plane taking Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Delhi to Karnataka in April this year, news agency PTI quoted a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) report as saying.

Following the incident during the landing of the flight from New Delhi at Hubballi in north Karnataka on April 26, a probe was ordered by the country’s civil aviation regulator.

Gandhi and some other Congress leaders were on their way to the state for campaigning ahead of the May 12 assembly elections.

Recalling the incident in rally in Delhi three days later, the Congress chief said as the plane suddenly came down by 8,000 feet, he believed it was his end. He said that after the narrow escape, he had decided to thank Lord Shiva by undertaking the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar.

First Published: Aug 31, 2018 18:36 IST