A320 Troubles, Latest News

[3WE]

THERE HAS BEEN A TOTAL A320 DISASTER!!!!!

The attached video (link is probably short-lived) shows an A-320 being lifted and dropped from about 60 feet in India or some other foreign place I know nothing about.

It was being moved to be used as some sort of ground-training aircraft.

http://mashable.com/2016/04/12/crane-co ... V4KklYOkqV

Of course, there is much ironing to be covered.

Ironingly, it was probably a steel cable that broke.

Not-so ironingly is my new ongoing painful assertion that "wow, these cheap composite crackerbox airframes actually seem to hold up a bit better in crashes...as long as the control surfaces don't break off or they aren't stalled for thousands of feet.

No doubt cowboy disregard to procedure is involved here- as well as third world safety cultures.

So, wow, what do you do at that low of an attitude. A stall, but 0 airspeed...would you lower the nose or pull up relentlessly?

Does anyone have a no-hire list for crane operators?

Luckily, no one did died (except for probably the plane).

It's sad that we have A320's now wearing out and being retired...too bad those total idiots at boing (Sorry Brad & Verbie) didn't come out with the 757NG or whatever the JP bunch say it should be called.

[Not_Karl]

(Hopefully...) FIXED LINKY.

Let's not discard an automation vs. crew fatigue/lack of training/incorrect procedure following issue.
Can a crane operate automatically below 60ft. on a single AP?

[Verbal]

Long-dormant Iran Air order struck from Airbus backlog
FlightGlobal 01/11/2024
Author: David Kaminski-Morrow

Iran Air’s landmark agreement for 100 Airbus aircraft has been scrubbed from the airframer’s backlog, its year-end figures reveal.

The Iranian flag-carrier placed the order in 2016 after sanctions were eased as part of a political agreement over the government’s nuclear energy programme.

Iran Air ordered 98 jets including 16 A350-1000s and 28 A330-900s, as well as eight A330-200s, along with 32 A320neos, eight A321s and six A320s.

The carrier was also assigned a pair of A330-200s which had originally been delivered to Avianca but not put into service.

But while the two A330-200s and a single new A321 were delivered to the Tehran-based airline, the remaining 97 aircraft have remained on the backlog after political tensions between the US and Iranian governments re-emerged in 2018.

Airbus’s newly-released year-end backlog figures for 2023 show that all 97 remaining aircraft assigned to Iran Air have been struck off.

This adjustment for Iran Air accounts for over 40% of the 225 cancellations recorded by Airbus last year. It particularly affects the net order total for the A330neo family, which fell to eight aircraft.

It is instructive to note that the morally bankrupt eurocommies that run Air Bus even sold airplanes to the Iranians in the first place.

[Not_Karl]

It is instructive to note that the morally bankrupt eurocommies that run Air Bus even sold airplanes to the Iranians in the first place.

With or without loose nuts?

[Verbal]

AirBus builds disposable airplanes. It is more profitable to part out 10 year old A320neo's than to keep them in service.

A320neos being disassembled for parts as component shortages continue
FlightGlobal 04/02/2025
Author: Jon Hemmerdinger

Aircraft parts supplier Unical Aviation has acquired “a fleet” of used Airbus A320neos that it intends to disassemble and sell for parts, a plan it says marks the “first dedicated disassembly programme for the [A320]neo-family aircraft”.

Unical intends to start acquiring the jets this month, it said on 1 April.

“As the first to launch a disassembly effort on A320neo aircraft, Unical is staying ahead of the curve to meet the evolving needs of our airline and MRO customers,” says Unical executive vice-president of assets David Dicken.

“These assets will soon be transformed into high-demand material to support operators worldwide with cost-effective, timely aftermarket solutions.”

Unical, based in Glendale, Arizona, does not say how many A320neos it plans to acquire or from where the aircraft are coming.

But a photograph released by the company shows a stored Airbus jet that appears to be painted in the colours of defunct Indian airline Go First, formerly called Go Air. That carrier entered bankruptcy protection and ceased operations in 2023.

Go First blamed its troubles largely on maintenance problems with Pratt & Whitney PW1100G turbofans. It said unscheduled maintenance and poor engine durability forced it to remove hundreds of PW1100Gs from service and to ground many of its A320neo-family jets.

The oldest of the A320neos that Go First had operated were delivered by Airbus about 10 years ago, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Unical did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the aircraft is plans to acquire.

It says an affiliate called Ecube, which is part of Unical Group and also based in Glendale, will perform the work of disassembling the jets.

“Demand for quality, serviceable material is growing rapidly,” the firm says. “Unical is accelerating the availability of next-gen components to the market and helping reduce turnaround times for critical maintenance.”

[Not_Karl]

AirBus builds disposable airplanes. It is more profitable to part out 10 year old A320neo's than to keep them in service.

That's what's so genius about Boeing: they make sure their aeroplanies TAD!!! themselves way before they need replacement parts.

[Verbal]

No.

[J]

Batch of A320neos Set for Scrapyard

This marks the first time an A320neo aircraft has been disassembled. The company’s subsidiary, Ecube, will conduct the teardowns, it said in a news release.

The aircraft type first flew in 2014, with nearly 4,000 in service worldwide. Unical did not provide a specific number of A320neos planned for teardown but told FlightGlobal the number was in the “double digits.”

Another company called AerFin is also slated to part out four A320neo aircraft.

“Unical is accelerating the availability of next-gen components to the market and helping reduce turnaround times for critical maintenance,” the company stated in the release.

Photos posted to Unical’s website show a Go First A320neo, an Indian airline that ceased operations in 2023. Around 50 aircraft previously belonged to the carrier and are now in storage, per Cirium Fleet Analyzer data.

https://airlinegeeks.com/2025/04/17/bat ... scrapyard/

And from Unical's website a photo of one of the doomed planes.

https://unical.com/newsroom/unical-acqu ... isassembly

[Verbal]

Further evidence that AirBus builds disposable airplanes.

Four Airbus A320neos Parted Out For Recycling
Aviation Week 10/06/2025
Author: Victoria Moores

Four Airbus A320neos, formerly operated by Indian carrier Go First and currently owned by parts trading specialist AerFin, have been dismantled and recycled by French company Tarmac Aerosave.

Although the A320neo family’s average age is only 3.76 years, early teardowns are being fueled by accelerated engine inspections and upgrades. Aviation Week reported the first A320neo part-out by Unical Aviation and its ecube subsidiary in April 2025. According to Aviation Week Network’s Fleet Discovery database, 14 A320neo family aircraft are currently listed as retired. Almost all of these are ex-Go First or IndiGo aircraft.

Go First cited the unreliability of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines as a major reason for its May 2023 grounding, which was followed by a long legal standoff, as lessors fought to reclaim the aircraft and their technical records. During that process, the lessors complained that the stranded aircraft were not being appropriately maintained.

The part-out of Go First’s 2017-build A320neos began in June 2025, with each aircraft generating 1,400 parts. Tarmac said the landing gear, engines and auxiliary power unit (APU) were removed early in the process, so they could be remarketed quickly. Dummy landing gears were then used to support the aircraft for the remainder of the process.

Tarmac has recycled more than 430 aircraft to date, and its parts recovery rate has reached 92%. AerFin started recycling aircraft with Tarmac 10 years ago, with an initial A340. This was followed by seven A330s in 2024 and, most recently, the four A320neos. Tarmac said it is expecting to receive further feedstock from AerFin by the end of 2025.

On Sept. 15, AerFin announced that it had acquired another Pratt GTF-powered A320neo, in partnership with a Middle East investor, from EMP Aviation Trading. The aircraft has been through its six-year maintenance check and full interval shop visits on both engines. AerFin is planning to disassemble this airframe in Asia, to supply the local market. “The engines are fresh out of overhaul and are available,” AerFin said.

[Verbal]

Airbus A320 repairs must be before next flight, bulletin shows
Reuters 11/28/2025

PARIS (Reuters) -Airlines affected by a sweeping recall of Airbus A320 jets to fix a software glitch must carry out the work before the next flight, excluding any re-positioning flight to a repair base, an Airbus bulletin to airlines showed on Friday.

The document, seen by Reuters, traced the issue to a computer known as ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer), which sends commands to elevators that control the plane's pitch or nose angle. Its manufacturer, France's Thales, said in response to a Reuters query that the functionality in question is supported by software that is not under Thales' responsibility.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Louise Heavens)

How very French is that? Thales claims that the software that runs their computer, written by a third party, is not their responsibility. On the contrary! Every supplier has complete responsibility for their product, and that includes any part of it that they farmed out to sub-tier suppliers. What we are seeing here is a complete lack of accountability.

Airbus issues major A320 recall after flight-control incident
Reuters 11/28/2025
Author: Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) -Europe's Airbus said on Friday it was ordering an immediate software change on a significant number of its best-selling A320 family of jets in a move that industry sources said would involve some 6,000 jets, or over half the global fleet.

Airbus said in a statement a recent incident involving an A320-family aircraft had revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.

"Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers," the company said.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency will issue an emergency airworthiness directive, Airbus said.

For about two-thirds of the affected jets, the recall will result in a relatively brief grounding as airlines revert to a previous software version, industry sources said.

But the scale of the operation is expected to cause significant disruption, emerging just ahead of the busiest travel weekend of the year in the United States.

Hundreds of jets may also have to have hardware changed, leading to weeks out of service.

The incident that triggered the sweeping repair action involved a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on October 30, industry sources said.

Flight 1230 made an emergency landing at Tampa, Florida, and several people were taken to hospital after a flight control problem and a sudden uncommanded drop in altitude.

According to Airbus data, there are around 11,300 A320-family aircraft in operation, including 6,440 of the core A320 model.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Louise Heavens and Chris Reese)

Airbus is blaming the sun for their troubles. Cue the forum calling for the sun to be banned.

[Gabriel]

[The ELAC ] sends commands to elevators that control the plane's pitch or nose angle. Its manufacturer, France's Thales, said in response to a Reuters query that the functionality in question is supported by software that is not under Thales' responsibility.

How very French is that? Thales claims that the software that runs their computer, written by a third party, is not their responsibility. On the contrary! Every supplier has complete responsibility for their product, and that includes any part of it that they farmed out to sub-tier suppliers. What we are seeing here is a complete lack of accountability.[/quote]

Just giving the benefit of the doubt (or the benefit of my ignorance), it could be the case (or not) that Thales provides the hardware and some level of software but they do not provide the piece of software that is affected here which may be either installed later by Airbus or installed by Thales but as a 3rd party software installed "as a service".

[3WE]

Evening news 11/28/2025:

A-320s “grounded” for an important, safety-related control
software update.

What’s it doing now?

Shocking, I tell ya!

Comments, flyboy?

This ranks a double post.

Footnote: Apparently it’s a a mildly-relentless push-over…I guess that’s not too bad.

Footnote footnote: I THOUGHT I checked for prior posts, but I guess not_.

[Not_Karl]

Cue the forum calling for the sun to be banned.

AGREE, we demand an IMMEDIATE ban on the Sun.

[Gabriel]

AGREE, we demand an IMMEDIATE ban on the Sun.

If you are talking about the star that we orbit, that could have mild unintended consequences.

[3WE]

It would help with global warming.

[Not_Karl]

AGREE, we demand an IMMEDIATE ban on the Sun.

If you are talking about the star that we orbit, that could have mild unintended consequences.

Yes and it would greatly reduce the amount of things left to ban, a totally intended consequence.

[Gabriel]

AGREE, we demand an IMMEDIATE ban on the Sun.

If you are talking about the star that we orbit, that could have mild unintended consequences.

Yes and it would greatly reduce the amount of things left to ban, a totally intended consequence.

By banning the sun you are banning all subsequent banning.
I thought you liked banning.

[Verbal]

I blame the French.

Update: Airbus hit by new A320 quality problem after software recall
Reuters 12/01/2025
Author: Tim Hepher

PARIS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Airbus confirmed on Monday it faced an industrial quality issue with metal panels on some A320-family jets, in its latest challenge after a recall to fix a computer glitch.

Reuters exclusively reported earlier that Airbus had found quality problems affecting the fuselage panels of several dozen A320-family aircraft, delaying some deliveries.

There were no indications that any had reached aircraft in service, but shares in the world's largest planemaker fell as much as 11% as the glitch eclipsed the grounding of thousands of A320 jets for a software update. Shares closed down 5.9%.

"Airbus confirms it has identified a quality issue affecting a limited number of A320 metal panels," it said, adding: "The source of the issue has been identified, contained and all newly produced panels conform to all requirements".

A spokesperson said the problem stemmed from a supplier, who they declined to name.

Airbus has internal and external suppliers for its aerostructures, with the front of the A320 fuselage broadly made in France and the rear in Germany. Upper panels tend to be produced in-house with the rest involving multiple suppliers.

The problem is the latest for the best-selling model after a weekend recall of over half the A320-family fleet for repairs triggered by a software vulnerability to solar flares.

[3WE]

I blame the French.

***[Thinner-than-spec metallic panels]***

Indeed.

Oh the ironing!