Aviation expert Harsh Vardhan warns that the Airbus A320 software issue poses a serious safety risk, urging immediate inspections amid a global grounding of over 6,000 aircraft. Triggered by a JetBlue incident involving sudden mid-air descent linked to ELAC system faults and solar radiation effects, Indian carriers like IndiGo and Air India are racing to update 350+ planes. Watch.
00:00Well, it is a very serious glitch and I am glad it was detected in time because it could have resulted into serious catastrophe.
00:11These are problems which are noticed by operators in flight.
00:17So, until you do not notice them, in that case, the aircraft is behaving well.
00:24The right course of action is that once you notice it, then you take it seriously, ground the aircraft.
00:30Well, it is a very serious glitch and I am glad it was detected in time because it could have resulted into serious catastrophe
00:41because the elevator and electron control system, which is showing the problem because of this glitch,
00:50which controls the levelling of the aircraft, you know, the altitude, the maintenance is done by this control mechanism.
00:59And suddenly, if it becomes uncontrolled, it can, you know, it starts moving to the nosedive situation
01:08and pilot sometimes does not have a control on it. Luckily, the incidents that were noticed, the situation rectified itself.
01:17Otherwise, anything could have happened. And then since there have been more than one instances,
01:23the immediate inspection was needed and then they realized that it is a fleet program, not an individual aircraft issue.
01:31So, grounding is important and it is the right decision and it should be done as fast as possible
01:38because apparently they upgraded the software which is causing this problem. So, they are reverting to the original software.
01:47So, I think this issue will be fixed soon. But it would still be monitored because this problem has just resurfaced.
02:00and we need to watch how after the modification, the aircraft continues to be, if there is any repetition of this nature.
02:09You asked me about the statement and the items. So, how are they looking at that? How they should be more aware about?
02:17Look, these are problems which are noticed by operators in flight. So, until you do not notice them, in that case,
02:29the aircraft is behaving well. So, this is where the fleet monitoring is done. It is not something which you can anticipate.
02:39The machine has a behavior of its own. So, I think the right course of action is that once you notice it,
02:47then you take it seriously, ground the aircraft and bring the necessary repairs.
02:51And then, this is the impact, impact impact world traffic. So, do, how can you explain it?
02:58Well, I think, you know, when you have this kind of problem, it is a fleet problem.
03:04And, you know, in today's context, Airbus nearly commands over 50% of the world fleet.
03:10And the A320 is one of the most successful airlines which is in operation. So, this is going to affect every operator.
03:20But, I always believe that safety is more important than the frequency or inconvenience because life cannot be risked at any situation.
03:31So, I think people have to understand that this is for their own good. You know, there may be disruption,
03:38they may perhaps miss a meeting or so, sometimes important appointment. It is better to live for other appointments
03:46rather than take chances on safety.
03:49So, issued an emergency are the active segments of this Airbus and DBC also. So, how government should work like on this matter?
03:59Once the service bulletins are issued, every agency, every country's agency, the regulatory agency which initially issued the service bulletin,
04:09they have to comply with the mandate. And the operators and the national air safety boards are no option
04:18but to ground the aircraft and doing necessary repairs.
04:21Every day, number of cabs are covered by flight. This kind of incidents are coming very often. What is the reason behind that?
04:34You know, this is one of those, this is one of the freak instances. It is not something which is happening every day.
04:44But you have to also realize that today the number of aircraft flying in the world is also huge. And when you are flying so many aircraft in the world today,
04:56some of the other problem will occur in some aircraft or the other anywhere in the world. So, I think we need to monitor them and despite all that,
05:07air travel continues to be the safest mode of public transport and this industry is very vigilant about any defect, any problems which occur on the machine or the people behind the machine.
05:24So, I think the safety mechanism is very tight here and there is no doubt that any instance of this nature needs to be thoroughly investigated and corrected.
Be the first to comment