A flight carrying Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Patna was forced to return to Delhi on Friday after experiencing “engine trouble”.
Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to inform that today’s scheduled meetings in Samastipur (Bihar), Balasore (Orissa) and Sangamner (Maharashtra) will run late. He also apologised for the inconvenience caused.
There were ten people on board the aircraft including two crew members.
Engine trouble on our flight to Patna today! We’ve been forced to return to Delhi. Today’s meetings in Samastipur (Bihar), Balasore (Orissa) & Sangamner (Maharashta) will run late. Apologies for the inconvenience. pic.twitter.com/jfLLjYAgcO
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 26, 2019
Following this, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated a probe into the incident, an official said.
The senior DGCA official said the Hawker 850 XP aircraft VT-KNB returned back to Delhi after take-off due to a technical snag.
Gandhi is on a campaign trail, crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country for the Lok Sabha polls.
This is not the first time his plane has experienced trouble mid-air.
On April 26 last year, a plane carrying Rahul Gandhi and some others from Delhi to Hubballi airport in Karnataka for campaigning for assembly polls developed a technical problem and tilted heavily on the left side.
The plane dipped steeply with violent shuddering, but soon recovered and landed safely.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had come out with its 30-page report on that incident in which it pinned the blame on the pilots for the near-crash of the Congress president’s chartered plane.
After the incident, Gandhi had expressed his desire to go on Mansarovar Yatra, which he undertook later that year.
(With PTI inputs)