Plane carrying Rahul develops technical snag, Cong demands probe

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 27

The Congress has demanded a probe into an unexplained technical snag in an aircraft carrying party president Rahul Gandhi from Delhi to Hubli and said the violent shuddering of the aircraft endangered the life of passengers, including Rahul Gandhi.

In a letter to Karnataka DGP Neelmani Raji, Rahul's aide Kaushal Vidyarthee, a co-passenger, said the aircraft descended rapidly while tilting to one side and shuddered severely until descent at Hubli at 11.25 am.

Rahul and four co-passengers boarded the special flight, VT-AVH, at 9.25 am and were to land at Hubli at 11.25 am.

“Around 10.45 am, the aircraft titled to one side and the altitude dipped steeply combined with heavy shuddering. For some time, the flight was out of radar as the auto pilot was not functioning,” Vidyarthee said. He claimed the possibility of intentional tampering could not be ruled out.

Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said normally, flight details of an SPG protectee is submitted to the DGCA and only then the flight is cleared. What happened in this case was very serious, he said as the Congress added that the snags were not related to weather.