# Air India flight hit by hydraulic failures before altitude drop, probe finds 2026-08-10T10:37:04+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Air India flight AI 2379 from Phuket to Delhi, which dropped 300 feet and injured 17 people on August 4, suffered a cascade of failures across all three hydraulic and flight-control systems before the loss of altitude, The Hindu reports. The aircraft's post-flight maintenance log shows nine fault messages within one minute. One pilot took manual control after a stall warning, and may have applied significant control input that caused the sudden drop. Separately, two passengers have told India Today that one pilot appeared intoxicated, with one saying his 'gait didn't look right'. The pilot-in-command's post-flight psychoactive substance screening was declared 'non-negative' and sent for confirmatory testing. The pilots' body ALPA India has warned that common over-the-counter medications can trigger false positives and urged the DGCA to keep test results confidential until the investigation is complete. ## Coverage - thehindu.com - indiatoday.in - hindustantimes.com Tags: A320 neo, AAIB, Air India, DGCA, flight safety, pilot dope test Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/air-india-a320-suffered-failures-pilot-failed-dope-test/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/air-india-a320-suffered-failures-pilot-failed-dope-test/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.