The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Saturday, issued a mandatory safety directive for Airbus A318, A319, A320 and A321 aircraft, directing airlines to carry out specified inspections and modifications before operating the affected planes.
The DGCA has instructed operators to update their compliance records accordingly and to ensure that no aircraft continues in service without meeting the required safety standards.
In its notification, the regulator stated, “Inspection and/or modification on the following subject is mandatory. Please make necessary amendment in the below-mentioned Mandatory Modification List".
It further added, "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) and applicable Airworthiness Directive(s).”
Notably, the DGCA's directive comes just hours after Airbus warned that more than half of its global A320-family fleet, over 6,500 aircraft, requires an urgent software fix. The alert reportedly followed an investigation into a recent JetBlue A320 incident in which “intense solar radiation” was found capable of corrupting data vital to flight-control functions.
Regulators overseas have instructed that the fix be applied before an aircraft’s next scheduled flight.
In India, an estimated 200-250 A320-family aircraft will need the immediate software upgrade, a reported PTI.
The affected jets are expected to be grounded briefly for the fix, a move likely to cause some operational disruption. India is among the largest markets for Airbus’ A320 series, with IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express together operating around 560 aircraft.
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