Indian Carriers Wrap Up Software Upgrade On Majority Of 338 Impacted A320-Family Planes
Software upgrades on all affected planes are to be completed by 5.29 am on November 30.
Indian carriers like IndiGo, Air India and Air Express have carried out software upgrades on the majority of the nation's affected Airbus A320 family planes after a global body pointed out a potential flight control issue borne through a faulty module.
As many as 338 A320 family aircraft operated by the Indian airlines were impacted by the directive from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Software update has already been completed in 270 of those 338 impacted flights, according to the latest data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
This software upgrade exercise caused minimal disruption within the Indian aviation ecosystem, with IndiGo and Air India not cancelling a single flight.
IndiGo has issued a statement confirming that its entire fleet has been upgraded with the new software.
"With the completion of this technical requirement, every aircraft now operates with the latest approved configuration, and we continue to monitor performance closely as part of our routine safety procedures," Indigo said.
The same goes for Air India, with software upgrades complete in 90% of the fleet.
In a post on X at 10.17 pm, Air India said it has successfully completed the reset on over 90 per cent of its operating A320 family aircraft that were impacted by EASA and Airbus' requirement for a software realignment.
An official said Air India Express has completed the upgradation for 22 out of the 25 impacted aircraft.
Software upgrades on all affected planes are to be completed by 5.29 am on November 30.
The 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 Oct. 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.
With inputs from PTI.
