Indian airlines complete Airbus safety upgrades

The DGCA on Sunday confirmed that all domestic airlines have finished installing critical software updates on 323 Airbus A320-family aircraft, closing out an urgent safety call by the manufacturer triggered by a potential glitch in the jets’ flight-control systems.
According to ET report, the directive came after Airbus flagged that unusually strong solar radiation could, in rare cases, corrupt data processed by components linked to flight controls on a large number of A320-series planes. The aviation giant had warned that the corrective software patch might cause short-term operational disruptions across global fleets. Initially, 338 aircraft operated by IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express had been identified for the update. Of these, 323 were in active service, while six were undergoing scheduled base maintenance. Subsequently, Air India determined that nine aircraft in its fleet did not require the modification, a senior DGCA official said.
IndiGo, which had 200 affected operational aircraft, has completed the upgrades across its entire active A320 fleet. Meanwhile, Air India had 113 flagged jets. Software updates have now been applied to 100 of its operational aircraft; four more are in maintenance, and nine were later assessed as not needing the fix.
The DGCA issued a formal Airworthiness Directive on Saturday, mandating immediate compliance by all Indian operators. The move followed a global alert from Airbus and an Emergency Airworthiness Directive from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). EASA noted on Friday that Airbus had advised airlines to ensure the installation of a compliant Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC), a key component that governs several aspects of an aircraft’s flight-control surfaces.
What led to the Airbus warning
Airbus’ alert was prompted by a concerning episode involving a JetBlue A320 operating a Cancun–Newark flight on October 30, 2025. According to the US National Transportation Safety Board, the jet abruptly dipped nose-down despite no such command from the cockpit. Investigators said the unexpected descent appeared to coincide with a transition between Elevator Aileron Computers (ELAC), the system that commands the aircraft’s elevator and aileron controls. The plane later diverted to Tampa, where several passengers required medical attention. In the wake of that incident, Airbus determined that strong bursts of solar radiation could, under certain conditions, distort crucial flight-control data in certain A320-family aircraft. This finding prompted the company to coordinate with global regulators to implement immediate precautionary checks and software updates.