Serbian Officials Row Over President's Diverted Plane

Oliver Antic, the advisor to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, has rejected claims made in an official report that the plane due to take Nikolic to Rome on April 17 had to return to Belgrade because "coffee was spilled in the cockpit".

Antic on Wednesday instead laid the blame for the incident on Zorana Mihajlovic, the Serbian Transport Minister.

"The President's life was in danger because the relevant ministry led by Zorana Mihajlovic did not follow procedures and react to failures which had been pointed out," Antic told the daily newspaper Danas.

Antic said the Civil Aviation Directorate did not have staff with the capacity to control the Falcon aircraft, which carried the President to Rome, and that Mihajlovic was aware of this shortcoming.

He also said the cause of plane's return to Belgrade was not spilled coffee, but engine failure.

"It is beyond any doubt that there was engine failure. The causal link between coffee and engine shutdown is completely fictional. Pointing to coffee, while the engine has stopped working, is not serious," Antic said.

His statement came two days after Stanislava Pak, media advisor to the President, accused Mihajlovic of trying to undermine the President, as the report about the spilled coffee appeared in public before the official report on the incident came out.

Mihajlovic has denied the allegation and has said that such issues should be discussed within the party and not in public.

"Over the last two days, I didn't say a single word beyond what was my job as Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure," she said.

"My job was to enable Serbia to get information on why the Falcon returned. I did my job. The Civil Aviation Directorate,...