Congress president Rahul Gandhi had a miraculous escape yesterday when his Bangalore-bound flight lost control and somehow managed to make an emergency landing at Hubli Airport in Karnataka.

Soon after the incident, Rahul Gandhi alleged that he doubted that it (emergency landing) could have been part of a larger conspiracy by ‘foreign forces’ to finish him off.  Rahul was heading to Bangalore to campaign for the ruling Congress in the State which is to elect a new Assembly on 12th May i.e. in about two weeks from now.  Top Congress and BJP leaders are camping in Karnataka for last-minute campaigning.
 
An hour after it left the Delhi Airport, the flight carrying Rahul Gandhi developed technical snags and started losing height.  Despite the pilot and co-pilot’s best efforts, the flight started leaning on one side and started losing control and height.  Efforts by the crew to attempt an emergency landing failed on the first two occasions but fortunately, the third attempt was successful as the plane made an emergency landing at Hubli Airport.

A major tragedy was thus averted thanks to the timely action by the pilot and co-pilot.  None was injured in the incident.  Congress later issued a press communiqué stating that it feared that the emergency landing could have been part of a conspiracy by ‘foreign forces’ to finish off its president.

However, it was reported that the technical snag which affected Rahul’s flight was something referred to in aviation parlance as ‘auto-pilot0 which was successfully resolved by the experienced team of pilot and co-pilot.  A complaint has been lodged while the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched an internal inquiry into the mishap.

Congress described the issue as ‘horrific’ and ‘serious’ and demanded a full-fledged probe into the incident.  On hearing about the emergency landing, Prime Minister Modi is said to have telephoned Rahul Gandhi a few minutes prior to his departure to China to inquire about his well-being.