"Spilled coffee" forced president's plane to return

"Spilled coffee" forced president's plane to turn back

BELGRADE -- The Falcon aircraft that Tomislav Nikolic was traveling on last week had to return to Belgrade due to the pilot "spilling his coffee on the control panel."

As the pilot attempted to "clean it up," he "accidentally activated the emergency switch," the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said in documents published late on Monday.

This caused the plane to start losing altitude, when engine number 3 shut down before it was reinitatied a few minutes later, the ministry said, quoting statements from the pilot and his copilot.

The documents said that they "quickly regained control over the aircraft."

The pilot has been suspended from duty for "departing from regulated rules and procedures, in this way endangering flight safety."

According to media reports last week, the government-owned Falcon, en route to Rome, turned back because of engine failure that ocured when it was over the Adriatic. The president canceled his official visit to the Vatican.

After the plane returned to Serbia, a planned test flight was canceled "because of insufficient pressure in the fuel pump." It was then decided, in consultation with the Civil Aviation Directorate, to send the plane to Basel, Switzerland, "for additional checks."

The ministry said that what it published on Monday was a part of the documentation and that a complete report would be published "most likely on Tuesday."

Pilot error

The airplane that recently carried Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to Vatican returned to Belgrade as the pilot accidentally toggled the emergency slot extension switch, reads the official report of the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Republic...