New Delhi:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose flight to Copenhagen was delayed by four hours after a tanker rubbed against the plane's body accidentally, finally departed from Indira Gandhi International Airport at 5:30 pm on Thursday.
The PM was, however, not in the aircraft when the incident took place.
"As a responsible member of the international community, India is fully committed to working with the rest of the world to preserve and protect our environment," he said in a statement just hours before leaving to attend the 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen (UNFCCC).
(Read: Full text of PM's statement)
High-level inquiry ordered
A high-level inquiry has been ordered into the mishap involving Prime Minister's special
aircraft at the technical area of the airport here and an Air India loader has been suspended.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who rushed to the airport on learning about the incident, told reporters that both the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Air India would conduct an inquiry.
He said preliminary inquiry has found that the Air India loader was operating the hydraulic lift carrying food items that hit the cargo door of the Air India Boeing 747-400.
"Let the full inquiry report come. Then we will know whether there was anything mala fide in this," he said adding the loader has good experience of having done work relating to several VVIP aircraft. (With PTI inputs)