A hydraulic failure struck Air India flight AI2379 from Phuket to Delhi on August 4, and 24 of the 145 people aboard were injured.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the aircraft, an Airbus A320-251N registered VT-EXO, was cruising at Flight Level 360. The Green hydraulic system lost pressure first. Four seconds later, the Blue and Yellow systems failed too. The autopilot disengaged, the aircraft climbed 372 feet, then fell 292 feet. A two-second stall warning sounded during the upset. The co-pilot was flying at the time and tried to control the aircraft before the pilot-in-command took over.
The flight crew decided against diverting and requested priority medical assistance on landing in Delhi. The flight carried 137 passengers and eight crew, made up of six cabin crew and two pilots. Twenty passengers and four cabin crew were injured, four of them seriously.
The bureau’s preliminary report, released on September 4, said the aircraft’s Power Transfer Unit had been listed under the Minimum Equipment List since July 28. That was seven days before the flight. The pilot-in-command’s sample tested non-negative for psychoactive substances, and a confirmatory blood test returned the same result. The co-pilot tested negative in both.
Both pilots passed alcohol breath-analyzer checks, Business Today reported, citing the same document. The AAIB recommended that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation take appropriate action on priority following the confirmatory result on the pilot-in-command.
India’s Civil Aviation Ministry classified the event as a serious incident in a statement issued days after it happened. The AAIB’s preliminary report goes further: what was first logged as a turbulence encounter is now being examined as a technical accident, based on the extent of the injuries and cabin damage.
Air India said safety remains its highest priority and that it maintains zero tolerance for breaches of safety, fitness or regulatory requirements. The carrier said it was cooperating with the investigation and described the pilot testing that followed as voluntary. An internal memo to pilots, seen separately by IANS and AFP, told a different story: the screening was mandatory, covered every pilot in the group, and began on August 13.
As of publishing, no public statement has been issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or by the two pilots. Local media reports have named the substance involved as marijuana, though neither the AAIB nor Air India has confirmed that detail on the record.
The AAIB has not yet determined a probable cause. Airbus and France’s aviation safety agency, the BEA, are assisting the inquiry, and Airbus technical experts inspected the aircraft in Delhi between August 13 and 15. The pilot-in-command, 34, had 5,055 flying hours, all of them on the A320, and the co-pilot had 1,393 hours. Both had a rest period of 21 hours and 59 minutes before the flight.
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