No complaint from Rahul's pilot about snag: Airport official

Hubballi (Karnataka):  No complaint has been received from the pilot of an aircraft which reportedly developed a snag when Congress President Rahul Gandhi was flying in it on Thursday, said an airport official here on Friday.

"Neither the pilot nor the air traffic control (ATC) complained to me about the snag," Hubballi airport Director Ahilya S. Kakodikar told reporters here.

The director of the airport, which is managed by the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), also stressed that the aircraft had a safe landing.

"It was a safe landing. In case of any abnormalities, the ATC would have recorded it," she said.

The Congress on Thursday complained to the Karnataka Police that the Falcon 2000 aircraft in which Gandhi and four others flew to Hubballi, about 400km northwest of state capital Bengaluru, from Delhi suffered a snag mid-air.

The complaint, addressed to the state's Director General Neelamani N. Raju, 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 late on Thursday.

Gandhi arrived here around 11.25 a.m. on Thursday on a two-day visit to the state to launch the party's campaign for the May 12 assembly elections.