DGCA issues safety directive for Airbus A318, A319, A320 & A321 aircraft, orders grounding
India’s aviation regulator has ordered an immediate halt to flights operated by the Airbus A320 family until airlines complete mandatory safety modifications under a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) directive. The sweeping move, issued Saturday, covers the Airbus A318, A319, A320 and A321 fleet and requires operators to ground aircraft until prescribed checks and fixes are completed.
In its notification, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said: “Inspection and/or Modification on the following subject is mandatory. Please make necessary amendment in below mentioned Mandatory Modification List. This is to be ensured that no person shall operate the product which falls under the applicability of this Mandatory Modification except those which are in accordance with the compliance to requirement of Mandatory Modification(s)/ applicable Airworthiness Directive(s)…”
The order follows Airbus’s global technical directive issued earlier this week, prompting Indian carriers Air India and IndiGo to pull aircraft from service and rework schedules to carry out urgent software and hardware upgrades.
What triggered the directive
The safety alert stems from an October 30, 2025 incident involving a JetBlue A320 travelling from Cancun to Newark. The aircraft “unexpectedly pitch(ed) downward without pilot input,” the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. The sudden descent “likely occurred during an ELAC switch change,” referring to the electronic flight control computer overseeing elevator and aileron operations. The aircraft diverted to Tampa, where several passengers were hospitalised.
Airbus later determined that intense solar radiation could corrupt flight-control data on certain A320-family jets. Working with regulators, it issued an immediate global alert. EASA said the malfunction, if left uncorrected, could lead to uncommanded elevator movement.
Impact on Indian airlines
Intense solar radiation has prompted Airbus to issue a global safety alert, forcing IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express to prepare for widespread flight disruptions across the country. The warning, tied to potential data corruption in critical flight-control systems of A320 family aircraft, could ground as many as 200–250 planes in India, according to officials cited by PTI.
The alert stems from an Airbus analysis of a recent A320 incident abroad in which the aircraft “briefly pitched down” due to a suspected malfunction in an Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC). Soon after, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive, ordering airlines to install serviceable ELAC units before the next flight of any affected aircraft.
India operates roughly 560 A320 family jets, the backbone of its domestic aviation network, meaning nearly half may need software or hardware intervention. Airlines are bracing for schedule disruptions as engineers perform inspections and system resets.
