Air India is ending a rough year with even more turbulence. As of Friday, January 2, 2026, Transport Canada has officially demanded a probe into an incident where an Air India captain showed up for duty “tipsy” at Vancouver International Airport.
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The thing is, the pilot didn’t just smell like a holiday party. Or nothing. Let’s be real, a duty-free staffer reportedly saw him “sipping wine” or smelling of liquor while buying a bottle on December 23. They called the cops, and he flunked two breathalyzer tests right on the aircraft. Those too.
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The “Tipsy Pilot” Log: Field Notes
It’s an ongoing situation where the Canadian authorities aren’t just asking for an apology—they’re looking for blood.
The Flight: AI186 (Vancouver to Delhi via Vienna).
The Investigation: Transport Canada official Ajit Oommen sent a letter labeling this a “serious matter” and a violation of the airline’s Foreign Air Operator Certificate.
The Deadline: Air India has until January 26, 2026, to explain how this happened and what they’re doing to stop it from recurring.
The Penalty: Both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Transport Canada are likely to pursue “enforcement action” (read: massive fines or worse).
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A Systemic “Safety Meltdown”?
And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just one bad apple. Air India is under a microscope after a Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad back in June 2025 that killed 260 people.
The DGCA Hammer: Just this week (Dec 29), India’s regulator sent warning notices to four other pilots for flying a “snag-prone” 787 to Tokyo despite knowing it had “repeated system degradations.”
The “Smell of Smoke”: In one of those flights (AI-358), the crew reportedly ignored a smell of smoke near a door.
The “Zero Tolerance”: Air India says they have a zero-tolerance policy, but with pilots accepting broken planes and showing up flunking “BA” tests, the “Tata Group” polish is looking a bit thin.
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The “Layover” Loophole
Field notes from the ground suggest that since pre-flight breathalyzer tests aren’t mandatory at every international station, pilots sometimes feel they can “get away” with a drink during a long layover. In this case, it was a sharp-eyed duty-free worker—not the airline’s own safety protocols—that caught the danger.
Basically, if you’re flying Air India right now, you’re looking at an airline in a full-blown “safety crisis.” Between the drunk pilot in Canada and the “snag-happy” planes in Japan, the regulator’s “Code Red” is very real.
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