Engine failure? No, co-pilot just spilled coffee on plane’s instrument board

SERBIA: Blamed initially on engine failure, it emerged that a government jet carrying Serbia’s president to Italy last week was forced to turn back when the co-pilot spilled coffee on the instrument board.

Advisers to President Tomislav Nikolic described being “thrown around the cabin” when the plane — a 34-year-old French-built Falcon 50 — began tumbling through the air on Friday.

The plane landed safely back in Belgrade, but Nikolic was forced to cancel his official visit to meet Pope Francis in the Vatican, and his advisers put the incident down to yet another malfunction on the ageing, incident-prone aircraft.