Air India flight from Phuket to Delhi hit severe turbulence, dropping 300 feet mid-air and injuring over a dozen people.

Flight AI2379, an Airbus A320 registered VT-EXO, left Phuket at 8:41 am local time and landed safely in Delhi around 11 am. Air India called it a “brief in-flight turbulence-related event” during cruise that caused a sudden shift in altitude. Flightradar24’s tracking logs put a number on just how fast it happened: a 425-foot drop packed into a 94-second stretch of cruise.”

Reports on the injury count vary slightly. Some accounts put the number at 12, while others place it at 14, made up of 10 passengers and four crew members.

Air India’s own statement was vaguer, referring only to a “small number” of passengers and crew needing medical assessment. One cabin crew member suffered a serious injury, a DGCA official confirmed.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has opened an investigation. Air India says it is cooperating fully and has stressed that no injuries were life-threatening.

Passengers described a chaotic few minutes. One traveller told ANI the aircraft “lurched violently” while most people were asleep, with the turbulence lasting two to three minutes and leaving 15 to 20 people with visible injuries.

Viviana, an Italian traveller whose family was on board, described the moment the plane bucked: her sister was airborne one second, and her mother took a blow to the head the next.

The injured, including the two crew members, were taken to a medical facility at the airport for evaluation. Air India’s ground and medical staff handled the care on-site.

At least one passenger has said they plan to pursue legal action against the airline. Turbulence incidents like this aren’t rare in commercial aviation, but the scale of injuries here, and the DGCA probe now underway, will likely keep this one in the headlines a bit longer than most.

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