Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday ordered airlines to ground all aircraft in the A320 family till they complete mandatory modifications and software fixes, following an Airbus warning that solar radiation could corrupt flight-control data on certain in-service jets.
DGCA said IndiGo and Air India did not cancel any flights, while Air India Express cancelled four flights due to the system modification process. Flight delays have been 60-90 minutes at various airports, sources said.
The software upgrades have been completed for 270 A320 family planes of the total 338 aircraft, as per data as of 5.30 pm. 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. Akasa Air and SpiceJet do not have any Airbus A320s in their fleets. The upgrade is expected to be completed by Sunday.
The move aims to ensure the remaining fleet is updated before returning to service. “This is to be ensured that no person shall operate the product which falls under the applicability of this mandatory modification except those which are in accordance with the compliance to requirement of mandatory modification(s)/applicable airworthiness directive(s),” the DGCA said in its order.
EASA Warning and the JetBlue Incident
The DGCA’s order comes after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Friday issued an emergency airworthiness directive temporarily grounding up to 6,000 Airbus A320 aircraft worldwide until critical flight-control fixes are completed. In a statement, the EASA said, “An Airbus A320 aeroplane recently experienced an uncommanded and limited pitch-down event. The autopilot remained engaged throughout the event, with a brief and limited loss of altitude, and the rest of the flight was uneventful.”
EASA added that a preliminary technical assessment by Airbus had identified a malfunction in the affected Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) as the possible contributing factor. This condition, if not corrected, could in the worst case lead to an uncommanded elevator movement that may exceed the aircraft’s structural capability.
The agency conducted the assessment following an incident on October 30, when a JetBlue-operated A320 travelling from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, United States, experienced an in-flight control issue due to a computer malfunction. While cruising at 35,000 feet, the aircraft suddenly pitched nose-down without pilot input, resulting in a brief but sharp loss of altitude.
Technical Scope and Industry Support
Reuters adds that Airbus is telling airlines that emergency repairs to some of the A320 jets affected by a major recall may be less burdensome than first thought, as per industry sources. Although some 6,000 jets remain impacted overall, a sub-set of jets needing a time-consuming hardware change rather than a quick software fix is smaller than the initial estimates of 1,000, they said. Airbus had no immediate comment.
State-owned AI Engineering Services (AIESL) on Saturday said its personnel are providing all support required to airlines to carry out system modifications on A320 family aircraft. “I have already instructed my people to be available 24×7, so that in case of any aircraft which needs any support of any sort, airlines can feel free to approach us. … We have offered our services. AIESL will ensure that not a single aircraft remains on ground in India for want of support,” AIESL CEO Sharad Agarwal told PTI.
