On a high: Air India's Phuket-Delhi flight pilot tests positive for marijuana

New Delhi: The turbulence on an Air India Phuket-Delhi flight last week may have been bad enough to rattle passengers, but the latest twist in the story has taken things to an entirely different altitude. The pilot-in-command of the flight has tested positive for marijuana in a confirmatory psychoactive substance test, sources said on Tuesday.

The development comes days after the Airbus A320-operated AI2379 suddenly lost around 300 feet in altitude while flying through turbulence on August 4, injuring at least 17 people.

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There were 145 people onboard — 137 passengers and eight crew members. Both pilots underwent the mandatory psychoactive substance screening after the incident. The initial test of the pilot-in-command apparently raised a red flag — or, in this case, something considerably more potent.

The Civil Aviation Ministry had said on August 9 that the screening test of the pilot-in-command had produced a result requiring confirmatory testing. The sample was subsequently sent to a designated laboratory, with the final report awaited at the time.

The confirmatory report has now reportedly come back positive for marijuana, according to sources.

So, while passengers on AI2379 were dealing with an unexpected drop in altitude, aviation authorities now have another question to deal with: what exactly was going on in the cockpit?

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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), meanwhile, has taken both pilots off the flying roster pending completion of the investigation and the testing process.

For the passengers, however, the episode offers a rather uncomfortable reminder of the one thing they would ideally like their pilots to be high on: altitude — and not marijuana.

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