Blamed initially on 'engine . failure ' , it emerged on Tuesday 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 . Advisers to President Tomislav Nikolic ( left , pictured in February in Belgrade ) described being 'thrown around the cabin ' when a plane taking him to Italy last week began tumbling through the sky . One adviser told Reuters that she would 'never step foot on . that plane again , ' saying the fall had lasted 'for what seemed . like an eternity ' . An investigation determined that the co-pilot , Bojan Zoric , . had spilled coffee on the instrument board 'due to ongoing . turbulence ' . ' I began wiping the board and accidentally activated the . 'emergency slat ' button , ' which automatically turned off the . automatic pilot and the plane began losing altitude , Zoric said . in the report by Serbia 's Civil Aviation Directorate . The pilot took over command , managed to pull the plane up . and sought permission to turn back to Belgrade , Zoric added . He . said that one of the engines then stopped working but was . restarted on the way back to the airport . The Directorate temporarily suspended Zoric 's licence on . Monday . An investigation revealed that the pilot of the Falcon 50 ( file image ) carrying Nikolic spilled coffee on the instrument panel and turned the autopilot off as he wiped it down .
Government jet carrying President Tomislav Nikolic went into a dive . Incident , which occurred last Friday , initially blamed on 'engine failure ' Serbia 's Falcon found cause was actually a coffee spill .