Airlines fix A320 software after Airbus flags glitch

IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express began upgrades on 270 of 338 A320-family aircraft to fix a flight-control issue from solar radiation. The work, covering 80 percent of affected planes, caused 60–90 minute delays and four cancellations by Air India Express; IndiGo and Air India reported no cancellations, DGCA said.

New Delhi: IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express on Saturday started carrying out software upgrades of A320 family planes to address a potential flight control issue, and requisite modifications have been done for 80 per cent of the affected 338 aircraft, an exercise that also resulted in delays and some flight cancellations.

According to the latest data from the aviation regulator DGCA, IndiGo and Air India did not cancel any flights, while Air India Express cancelled four flights due to the system modification process.

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Flight delays have been 60-90 minutes at various airports, sources said.

On Friday, Airbus said intense solar radiation might corrupt data critical to flight controls in a significant number of A320 family aircraft and that the software changes required to fix the issue would lead to operational disruptions.

As many as 338 A320 family aircraft operated by Indian airlines require the software upgrade to address a potential issue related to flight controls, and modifications have been carried out in 80 per cent of the affected fleet, according to DGCA data.

The software upgrades have been completed for 270 A320 family planes out of the total 338 aircraft, as per the data available with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) till 5.30 pm on November 29.

A total of 200 IndiGo planes have been affected, and software upgrades have been completed for 184 of them, while in the case of Air India, 113 aircraft have been impacted and upgrades have been done for 69 of them, DGCA data showed.

In the case of Air India Express, 25 planes have been impacted, and software upgrades have been completed for 17 aircraft as of 5.30 pm, according to data.

The software upgrades are being undertaken at the bases of the airlines in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

Software upgrades on all affected planes are to be completed by 5.29 am on November 30.

DGCA on Saturday issued an Airworthiness Directive to airlines asking Indian operators to carry out the requisite software upgrades immediately.

This followed Airbus issuing an alert to operators globally and the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) coming out with an Emergency Airworthiness Directive regarding the potential issue.

On Friday, EASA said Airbus asked airline operators to install a serviceable Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) in the impacted aircraft. ELAC is for flight controls.

IndiGo, which operates over 2,300 flights daily, said that no flights have been cancelled as a result of the checks carried out on A320 family planes, but a few flights may experience minimal delays.

There have been no cancellations due to the task, and there is no major impact on schedule integrity across its network. However, some flights may be slightly delayed or rescheduled, Air India said in the morning.

Most of the nearly 6,000 affected aircraft worldwide need software upgrades, while some might require hardware realignment.

There are over 8,100 A320 family planes in service worldwide. These include A319s, A320 ceos and neos, and A321 ceos and neos, data from aviation analytics company Cirium showed.

Former pilot Ehsan Khalid told PTI Videos that ELACs are the brain and nervous system of the aircraft, and the software problem with one of the ELACs is significant.

When the pilot moves the control forward, it will cause the aircraft to pitch down and when it is moved backward, then the plane pitches down. This particular movement is done by pilot control and if that happens on its own, then there is a problem, he said.

On October 30, he said a JetBlue aircraft experienced an uncommanded pitch down for seven seconds, which caused the aircraft to lose 100 feet and injured more than 15 people.

“At 35,000 feet, neither a loss of 100 feet nor seven seconds is critical. But if you remember the Ahmedabad crash, it happened during take-off, and seven seconds would have been enough to cause a catastrophic end. So humanity has been lucky this time.

“The aircraft manufacturer has openly acknowledged a software problem and has said it will fix it,” Khalid said.

IndiGo, in a statement, said software upgrades have been completed for 160 of the 200 impacted A320 family planes.

The airline said the required actions have already been completed on 160 aircraft by 12:00 IST, and inspections on the remaining aircraft are progressing well and will be completed within the timeline.

“We have already completed the reset on over 40 per cent of our aircraft that are impacted by this, and are confident of covering the entire fleet within the timeline prescribed by EASA,” Air India said in a post on X in the morning.

“Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in service which may be impacted,” it had said in a release.

Airbus said it acknowledges that these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions for passengers and customers.