Air India Flight Investigation Focuses on Technical Failures and Pilot Screening After Altitude Drop

An Air India Airbus A320neo flight from Phuket to Delhi on August 4 experienced a sudden loss of approximately 300 feet of altitude during cruise, resulting in injuries to 17 people. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has classified the event as a serious incident. An Airbus team and France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) are joining the probe to provide technical assistance.

Reports indicate the incident was preceded by a series of technical failures. One source cited an automated post-flight maintenance report showing nine warning messages within one minute, involving failures in the aircraft's hydraulic and flight-control systems. This sequence included an autopilot disconnect and fault indications for both the left and right elevators. According to these reports, a stall warning was triggered, prompting a pilot to take manual control and push the nose down to recover the aircraft.

Simultaneously, the flight crew members have been taken off the roster. The Civil Aviation Ministry stated that the pilot-in-command's psychoactive substance screening requires confirmatory testing, with results still awaited. One source noted that the preliminary drug test for the pilot-in-command returned a non-negative result, while the First Officer was cleared in preliminary tests.

Outlets with a center-left lean emphasize that the event was a rare flight-control failure and highlight that Air India's initial attribution of the incident to turbulence was contradicted by technical data. In contrast, a center-right lean outlet frames the event as a turbulence case in its headlines while reporting on the pilot's preliminary drug test results.