New Delhi, Aug 31: Months after an aircraft carrying Congress president Rahul Gandhi suffered technical snags mid-air, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) submitted its report wherein it blamed the pilot for failing to control the plane when auto pilot got disengaged. According to the DGCA report, the pilot took 24 seconds to control the aircraft, which ferried Rahul Gandhi to Hubballi in Karnataka, after technical snags.

"After the auto pilot got disengaged, it took 24 seconds for the pilots to control the situation. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 40,935 feet and lost 735 feet during 24 seconds," said the DGCA report. "The yaw damper failure occured due to intermittent behaviour of FCC 2, this caused the auto pilot to disengage and the aircraft went into excessive right bank with altitude loss," it added. Rahul Gandhi's Flight From Delhi to Hubli Develops Technical Snag.

The cockpit crew delayed actions to control the aircraft manually due to lack of situaional awareness, the report concluded. The aircraft had banked excessively on one side which could have resulted in a crash if the crew had not controlled the aircraft manually and immediately. On April 26, the Falcon 2000 aircraft in which Gandhi and four others flew to Hubballi from Delhi suffered "unexplained technical snags" mid-air, said the Congress. Rahul Gandhi Plane Snag: Aircraft Operators Association Condemn FIR Against Pilots.

The Congress complained to the Karnataka Police and requested the state police chief to "ground" the aircraft at Hubballi and investigate the malfunction. Based on the complaint by Congress official Shakir Sanadi, the police in Hubballi lodged a First Information Report.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 31, 2018 07:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).