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 Civil Aviation Directorate found cause was actually a coffee spill .