'Could've Resulted In Serious Catastrophe': Aviation Expert Harsh Wardhan On Airbus A320 Software Row

The software glitch affecting Airbus A320 fleet could've resulted in a "serious catastrophe" had it not been detected, aviation sector expert Harsh Wardhan said on Saturday.

The glitch, which is linked to the Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC) of the A320 model, led to the grounding of around 6,000 flights globally. In India, a total of 388 flights were affected, out of which 189 have undergone a software update that allows them to resume commercial operations, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation confirmed.

Wardhan, while speaking to news agency ANI, said a major tragedy was averted due to the timely detection of this glitch. "It's because the elevator and dial-tone control system, which is showing the problem due to this glitch, controls the aircraft's levelling. Altitude maintenance is performed by this control mechanism. And suddenly, if it becomes uncontrolled, it starts nosediving. And a pilot sometimes doesn't have control over it. Luckily, the incidents that were noticed were rectified on their own; otherwise, anything could have happened," he said.

Notably, the global mandate for grounding the affected fleet was issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This came after investigations linked a fault in the ELAC to an October incident where a JetBlue aircraft experienced an uncommanded drop in altitude.

"Given multiple instances, an immediate inspection was necessary. They then realised that it is a fleet problem, not an individual aircraft issue, so grounding is important and the right decision," Wardhan reportedly said.

Although this issue will be fixed soon, but regulators will need to keep monitoring to check how the aircraft behaves after the modification, he added.

Notably, a technical assessment done by Airbus had pinpointed ELAC as the source of the glitch. The said investigations have linked the data corruption within these flight computers to intense solar radiation, which can interfere with the unit's critical calculations.

In order to resolve the problem, the EASA directive mandates the replacement of the affected units with a serviceable "ELAC B L103+" version or the application of specific software modifications.