At 36,000 feet, Air India flight to Delhi briefly lost all hydraulics within seconds, triggering ‘altitude upset’
The report also stated that the pilot-in-command, who was the pilot monitoring during the flight, tested “non-negative” for a psycho-active substance.
On August 4, an Air India Airbus A320neo en route from Phuket to Delhi experienced a sudden loss of all three of its hydraulic systems while cruising at 36,000 feet. This resulted in an "altitude upset" that injured 24 people on board, according to a preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). The aircraft's flight-control system first detected the loss of the green hydraulic system 43 seconds into the incident at 9:32:48am IST, followed by the loss of the blue and yellow systems.
The autopilot disengaged and a chime sounded, while a stall warning was triggered for two seconds. The aircraft then experienced a momentary altitude increase of 372 feet before falling by 292 feet from its assigned FL360. However, the hydraulic systems recovered shortly thereafter, restoring the aircraft to normal operation. One of the pilots, who tested positive for a psycho-active substance, was the co-pilot, while the other pilot, the co-pilot, tested negative.
The report states that the technical question remains open, with the AAIB acknowledging that more investigations are underway to determine the cause of the hydraulic failure and the sequence of events leading to the incident.
Written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
