Airbus software glitch affects almost 340 aircraft in India
What's the story
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has revealed that 338 A320 family aircraft operated by Indian airlines need a software upgrade to fix a potential flight control issue. The update has been applied to more than half of the affected fleet, according to DGCA data. The aircraft in question are operated by IndiGo, Air India, and Air India Express.
Safety alert
Airbus warns of potential flight control data corruption
On Friday, Airbus warned that intense solar radiation could corrupt data critical to flight controls in a large number of A320 family aircraft. The company also said the software changes needed to fix this issue would cause operational disruptions. The DGCA has confirmed that as of today, 189 out of the total 338 aircraft have received these updates.
Regulatory action
DGCA issues Airworthiness Directive
In response to Airbus's warning, the DGCA has issued an Airworthiness Directive to airlines, directing Indian operators to carry out the necessary software upgrades immediately. This comes after Airbus warned global operators and the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive over the potential issue. The affected A320 family planes include A320 Ceos and Neos as well as A321 Ceos and Neos.
Update status
Software upgrades progress and operational impact
The software upgrades are being done at the bases of the airlines in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. As of today, IndiGo has been affected by this issue on 200 planes with upgrades completed for 143 of them. Air India has been impacted on 113 aircraft with upgrades done for 42, while Air India Express has been affected on 25 planes with updates completed for four.