1 December 2025
Aviation regulators in Europe and the UK have ordered urgent action on parts of the Airbus A320 family fleet after a software-related glitch was linked to an incident involving uncommanded pitch behaviour on an A320-series aircraft.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive late on 28 November requiring operators to replace or modify specific elevator aileron computers (ELACs) before further flight.
The directive applies to a wide range of A319, A320 and A321 models and becomes effective at 23:59 UTC on 29 November 2025.
According to EASA, an A320 recently experienced “an uncommanded and limited pitch down event,” with the autopilot remaining engaged throughout.
Airbus’ initial assessment pointed to a malfunction of the affected ELAC unit (type ELAC B L104) as a potential contributor. Regulators warn that, left uncorrected, the fault could cause elevator movements severe enough to risk exceeding the aircraft’s structural limits.
To address the issue, Airbus has issued an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) and identified a “significant number” of potentially affected aircraft worldwide.
The company said analysis shows that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to flight-control function, prompting the call for immediate software and hardware protections. Airbus acknowledged the likely operational disruption and apologised to passengers and operators, adding that safety remains its “overriding priority”.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the directive would require some UK-operated A320-family aircraft to undergo software updates “over the days ahead” or be grounded from Sunday until the work is completed.
The regulator warned of possible short-term disruption and advised passengers to check directly with their airlines regarding affected flights. “Airlines have a duty of care to look after passengers when a flight is delayed,” said Giancarlo Buono, the CAA’s Director of Aviation Safety.
However, by the morning of 29 November, UK carriers reported rapid progress. The CAA said most required software updates had already been completed overnight, with only a small number of aircraft still awaiting modifications.
Chief Executive of the CAA, Rob Bishton, praised the “swift efforts” of airlines adding that the regulator does not expect significant passenger disruption thanks to available spare aircraft capacity.
Airbus said today (1 December 2025), “Out of a total number of around 6,000 aircraft potentially impacted, the vast majority have now received the necessary modifications. We are working with our airline customers to support the modification of less than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service.”
Airbus A320 family “emergency airworthiness directive”: British Airways and easyJet both report no disruption to their European operations today.
Main issue: Air France at Paris CDG and Orly, with dozens of cancellations overnight, continuing this morning.https://t.co/5AbMo7ymnM— Simon Calder (@SimonCalder) November 29, 2025
