Hundreds of Airbus jets operated by Air India and IndiGo were impacted after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an emergency airworthiness directive. The order, which affects as many as 6,000 Airbus A320-family aircraft worldwide, requires immediate checks and fixes to a critical flight-control component. Indian aviation regulator DGCA also released a “most urgent” notice directing airlines to inspect and replace the ATA 27 system tied to the elevator aileron computer (ELAC). The directive covers Airbus A318, A319, A320 and A321/5 models.
Both Indian carriers said they are on track to finish the mandatory updates by the end of the day, with no cancellations expected and delays limited to under 30 minutes. Air India said engineers have already reset more than 40% of affected aircraft, while IndiGo confirmed that 160 of 200 required aircraft have been updated.
The alert followed a recent incident in which an A320 abruptly pitched down mid-flight due to corrupted ELAC software. Airbus later found that intense solar radiation could disrupt the updated software, requiring replacement with the safer ELAC L103 plus system.
