Mumbai: In what can be called a perfect example of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, Air India has mandated compulsory psychoactive drug screening for its entire cohort of flight crew. Simultaneously, the group’s low-cost carrier has asked its crew to voluntarily disclose the abuse of banned drugs, following an alarming mid-flight incident involving Air India last week.
The policy shift was triggered by events aboard flight AI-2379 on August 4, an Airbus A320 flying from Phuket to New Delhi carrying 137 passengers and eight crew members. Cruising over Odisha, the aircraft suffered a sudden 300-foot altitude drop, injuring 20 passengers and four cabin crew.
While initial airline statements cited clear-air turbulence, mandatory post-flight drug testing revealed that the pilot-in-command (PIC), Sudeep Vashistha, tested positive for marijuana in a confirmatory lab report. The co-pilot was forced to single-handedly recover control and land the jet after the PIC exhibited erratic behaviour in the cockpit.
In an internal email issued to flight deck staff on Thursday, Air India rolled out universal screening of all Group pilots for any substances or medications that are not permitted under prevailing regulations. The airline’s senior vice president for flight operations, Capt Manish Uppal, informed the staff that the mandatory testing had to be started from the same day, concurrent with training at its Gurugram Academy, post-flight at its flight briefing centres, Air India offices or other locations provided by the pilots’ respective bases.
“The trust is our most important asset and it is vital that we do all possible to protect and sustain it,” read the email. “The initiative, which goes beyond regulatory requirements, reflects our determination to uphold the highest standards of safety and professionalism and to provide reassurance to our passengers, stakeholders and the community at large.”
Air India’s outgoing CEO Campbell Wilson, at his last organisational town hall on Thursday, expressed anger and disappointment towards the employees who flout rules and regulations. He asked employees to report wrongdoings they observe and warned that Air India will continue to tighten checks.
Under the current civil aviation requirements (CAR), airlines are only required to run random drug checks on a 10% sample of flight crew annually, alongside post-incident testing. Air India is said to have leapfrogged the existing regulatory framework by subjecting 100% of its cockpit crew to screening after the major incident on AI-2379, which has again brought the airline under intense regulatory and passenger scrutiny.
Simultaneously, low-cost subsidiary Air India Express has launched a parallel internal campaign, urging pilots to voluntarily declare any personal struggles with substance dependency or psychoactive medication abuse. The chief of flight safety urged the employees to self-declare any use, misuse, or dependence on drugs that may affect their fitness for duty and ability to safely perform their assigned duties.
“Self-declarations will be handled in a confidential and sensitive manner, with information shared only on a need-to-know basis. The report shall be handled confidentially and access shall be restricted to the Head of Medical Services, Chief Human Resource Officer, Chief of Flight Safety and Departmental Head as applicable,” read the message.
Notably, industry sources indicated that other carriers may also bypass standard DGCA rehabilitation pathways to pursue immediate disciplinary termination following the ministry and the regulator’s increased focus on the issue.
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The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are now re-evaluating national regulations to tighten substance abuse checks across all Indian air operators. The DGCA is considering raising the mandatory annual random test quota well above the current 10% threshold while there are discussions over implementing strict penalties like immediate licence cancellation. According to high-level sources, technical committees are also examining the viability of introducing rapid, pre-flight drug tests alongside standard alcohol breathalyser tests.
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