Air India Plane Loses Altitude, Causing Injuries: Technical Fault, High Pilot, Or Both?

Last week, an Air India flight made headlines, after it suddenly dropped 300 feet while at cruising altitude, injuring over a dozen people onboard. While it’s of course awful to see injuries, initially one wondered if the plane just hit clear air turbulence, or what.

Well, the more details that emerge about this incident, the stranger the story becomes. It’s also hard to figure out what’s true, and what’s (insanely over the top) dramatization by the media in India.

Basics of the drama surrounding Air India flight AI2379

This incident goes back to Tuesday, August 4, 2026, and involves Air India flight AI2379, operating from Phuket (HKT) to Delhi (DEL). The 1,972-mile flight was operated by an Airbus A320neo with the registration code VT-EXO, and had 145 people onboard, including 137 passengers and eight crew members.

While the plane was enroute and at cruising altitude, it suffered a sudden altitude loss of 300 feet. Now, 300 feet might sound like a lot on the ground, but that’s actually not a huge amount of altitude loss for a commercial aircraft, in the scheme of things.

However, the way that the loss of altitude happened is what caused issues, especially with people not buckled in, as the seatbelt sign wasn’t on at the time. The jet also exceeded its -1g structural limit during the event. In the end, 13 passengers and four crew members were injured, and had to be taken to hospitals upon landing (all are expected to fully recover, fortunately).

So, what caused this sudden loss of altitude? This incident has been a huge story in India, especially given Air India’s not-so-great reputation at the moment. As you’d expect, regulators in India have also been investigating this, the company’s CEO has had to appear to answer for this with authorities, etc. Well, the more details that emerge, the stranger this all gets…

The plane had technical issues, and the captain was high?!

The investigation has so far revealed that the Airbus A320neo that was operating this flight had 13 different technical failures in the 80 minutes leading up to this sudden drop in altitude. We’re talking about everything from warning lights about doors not being armed, to warnings about hydraulic issues, and more.

In the moments leading up to the incident, the captain was standing behind the first officer in the flight deck, discussing problems with the plane’s air conditioning system. A stall warning then reportedly went off, and moments later, the autopilot disengaged, and the nose then pitched up.

As a result, the first officer, who was also the pilot flying on this sector, responded with the typical stall recovery response, by pushing the nose down. This is also what caused the plane to lose altitude.

Both pilots were given drug tests after the flight, and the captain tested positive for marijuana (and this was confirmed via a second test). Now, marijuana can stay in your system for weeks, so there’s no indication that the captain was high at the time of the incident, but instead, he might’ve just gotten high while off duty, completely unrelated to this flight (which is still a violation of rules, but there’s a difference).

Look, I don’t want to dismiss the detail of the captain testing positive for marijuana. If you’re a pilot and the regulations say that you can’t consume drugs (which they do), then you shouldn’t. But there’s zero indication here that the pilot was “high” at the time of the flight, and getting “high” a week before a flight should have zero impact on your ability to perform your duties (it would be like having a couple of drinks a week prior).

I see all kinds of people attacking the crew for not reporting the “high” captain before the flight, etc., but we have no reason to believe they knew this. So anyway, I just think it’s important to maintain some balance here. Let’s focus on the important detail, which is that there were reportedly 13 different technical faults in the period leading up to this incident, which sure seems to me like the biggest clue here.

Bottom line

An Air India Airbus A320neo suffered a sudden loss of altitude last week while enroute from Phuket to Delhi, injuring over a dozen people onboard. Obviously incidents like this need to be investigated, and the more details that emerge, the more concerning this all is.

The plane reportedly had 13 warnings and faults in the period leading up to the sudden loss of altitude (which was reportedly caused by the first officer pitching the nose down, due to a stall warning). Then the added detail is that the captain also failed drug tests, and tested positive for marijuana.

What do you make of this AI2379 incident?