Dubai-bound Air India flight makes emergency landing at Mumbai airport after pilot reports cabin pressure loss, DGCA grounds crew

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded the Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft and off-rostered flight's crew and has started investigating the incident.

Image for representation

Update: The alternate aircraft arranged for passengers of the Dubai-Kochi Air India flight that got diverted to Mumbai a day ago due to a loss of cabin pressure landed at the Cochin International Airport early on Friday morning.

In yet another aviation incident, an Air India Dubai-Kochi flight was diverted to Mumbai on July 21 (today) for a reported loss in cabin pressure. Air India, now part of Tata Group was operating a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft on the international route, with 247 passengers and crew onboard when the pilot-in-command reported a loss in cabin pressure, officials of aviation regulator DGCA said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) later grounded the Boeing 787 and off-rostered the flight crew. An Air India spokesperson said the matter has been reported to the DGCA as per the set procedures. DGCA, on the other hand has started investigating the incident, the officials said. 

Oxygen masks were deployed on the Air India plane so that the passengers do not face any discomfiture. The plane was allowed to divert to the nearest airport, which in this case was the one in Mumbai and it landed safely, said DGCA. An aircraft generally operates at an altitude of around 30,000 feet where the oxygen level is quite less. Therefore, all aircraft create pressure inside the cabin so that there is sufficient oxygen for passengers and crew members.

"Flight AI 934, operating from Dubai to Cochin, was diverted to Mumbai today due to a technical issue. The B787 aircraft landed safely at Mumbai at 1912 hrs with 247 passengers and crew. An alternate aircraft is being arranged to carry passengers from Mumbai to Kochi," an Air India spokesperson said.

This is the third instance in the last three days when the aviation regulator grounded a plane after an incident. On Tuesday, Go First's Mumbai-Leh and Srinagar-Delhi flights faced engine snags and both the planes were grounded by the DGCA. Officials said that when the Air India flight was heading from Dubai to Kochi on Thursday, the pilot observed a loss in cabin pressure and immediately contacted the integrated operations control centre (IOCC) of the airline as well as the air traffic controller.

There have been multiple technical malfunction incidents in planes flown by Indian carriers in the last one month. Between Sunday and Tuesday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held multiple meetings with airlines and officials from his ministry and DGCA to ensure safety oversight.

The DGCA had on Monday said it conducted spot checks and found that an insufficient number of engineering personnel were certifying planes of various carriers before take-off.
Before each departure, an aircraft is checked and certified by an aircraft maintenance engineer (AME). The DGCA has now issued guidelines for airlines on deployment of qualified AMEs and directed them to comply by July 28.

The spot checks also found that AME teams of airlines are improperly identifying the "cause of a reported defect", the DGCA order stated. A Go First flight heading from Delhi to Guwahati on Wednesday was diverted to Jaipur after the A320neo aircraft's windshield cracked mid-air.

With PTI inputs