New Delhi, April 27: Congress president Rahul Gandhi received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, after his flight which developed a technical snag landed in Delhi, the party sources were reported as saying.

Rahul, along with his four key aides, was traveling from Delhi to Karnataka's Hubli in a VT- AVH Falcon 2000. The flight which landed in Hubli at 10:45 am yesterday, developed a technical snag enroute, to the extent that it plunged upto 500-metre mid-air with no control of the pilot.

Rahul, who also holds a commercial pilot license, attempted to maintain calm when the flight developed a technical snag, the party said, adding that their chief realised after monitoring the pilots that the malfunction was "unnatural".

"The suspicious and faulty performance raises serious questions related to intentional tampering with the aircraft cannot also be brushed aside and are required to be addressed and investigated," Rahul's aide Kaushal Vidyarthee said in his letter to the Karnataka IG.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it would conduct an inquiry into the incident, saying such snags are "not uncommon". "It was snag of autopilot mode and pilot shifted to manual mode and landed safely," said DGCA chief BS Bhullar.

The Congress on Thursday hinted at a sabotage angle, claiming that Rahul Gandhi might had been possibly targeted through a "huge conspiracy". "We will firmly seek an inquiry into the incident. Whatever happened in the flight warrants a high-level probe. It was not a regular snag," said party spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa.

The BJP, meanwhile, called it another instance of Congress' "desperate politics". "What kind of politics is this? Will he now blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a technical snag," questioned BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

"This is the kind of politics which the Opposition could do. We all remember how Mamata Banerjee said that Modi ji wants to get her killed," Patra added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2018 07:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).