Air India Express Boeing 737 operating flight IX 415 from Cochin to Abu Dhabi was forced to turn back mid-flight after the crew detected a rapidly falling oil quantity on Engine 1 and later shut the engine down when oil pressure entered the danger zone.
The Air India Express engine-oil event now raises a parallel question: whether the Ministry of Civil Aviation will also tighten the framework for DGCA safety audits.
In the wake of the Phuket-Delhi incident, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the DGCA would raise the annual percentage of psychoactive substance tests for flight crew.
The latest episode comes days after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released its preliminary findings on the Air India Phuket-Delhi flight. Technical diversions have become a near-weekly feature across Indian carriers. That report recorded that Airbus technical experts inspected the involved aircraft for three days in the presence of the investigation team. Hydraulic components and hydraulic samples were then collected for further analysis.
