Not just A320s, Airbus to fix software for A380s’ engines by Q1 2026

Airbus, which has already issued an emergency directive for all A320-series jets over a flight-control software flaw, is now preparing similar software upgrades for its A380s to prevent mid-air engine thrust failures, The Federal has learnt.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has asked Airbus and Rolls-Royce to implement a permanent fix for this long-standing safety issue, i.e the repeated Loss-of-thrust-control (LOTC) events in Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on the Airbus A380s, as per internal documents viewed by The Federal. About 11 LOTC events have been reported since 2011, said the documents.

LOTC events are a serious digital-control failure in a large turbofan engine.

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On Friday, Airbus warned airlines that intense solar radiation may corrupt data in the flight-control computers of nearly 6,000 A320 family aircraft worldwide. Instead of immediately introducing a brand-new software patch, Airbus has instructed operators to temporarily revert to an earlier, stable software version — a rollback that will require fleetwide maintenance and is expected to cause operational disruptions.

Airbus 380s have experienced 11 incidents of 'loss of thrust' in Rolls-Royce engines since 2011, according to internal documents from a European airline

This has impacted the operations of Indian airlines, where Airbus makes up about 75-80% of the fleet, and A320s a sizable portion of that. Both Air India and Indigo issued travel advisories late on Friday.

A circular from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) states that 200 aircraft were affected by Indigo, and 138 by Air India and Air India Express. And with hourly updates from the airlines, all three are likely to meet their Sunday deadline for the software rollback.

A380 engine fix may disrupt India-bound flights next year

But next year, there may also be some disruption given the scheduled upgrade for the A380s Rolls-Royce engines. This will not impact the operations of Indian airlines, which mostly use the A320s and A350s, given their preference for smaller twin‑engine widebodies over larger aircraft.

But it may impact Indian passengers on international flights from Indian airports as several major foreign carriers — including Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Lufthansa — regularly fly A380s into Indian hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Any mandated engine-software upgrades or associated maintenance downtime could impact schedules, seat capacity and connectivity on India-bound long-haul routes.

11 instances of 'loss of thrust' in A380s

Airbus 380s have experienced 11 incidents of 'loss of thrust' in Rolls-Royce engines since 2011, according to internal documents from a European airline. For this issue, EASA has asked the engine manufacturer and Airbus to come up with a fix by the first quarter of 2026.

So even as Airbus gears up to do a software patch for the A320s, it will also have to fine-tune the software fix it’s come up with to prevent the 'loss of thrust control' in the Rolls-Royce engines for the A380s.

Corrupted thrust commands from FADEC

The technical records attribute the engines’ 'loss of thrust' to cracking in solder joints on the digital data-link card or the avionics full-duplex switched ethernet (AFDX) interface card inside the engine computer FADEC’s electronic engine controller (EEC) of the Trent 900.

When these solder joints degrade, the digital data-link card (AFDX) can intermittently corrupt digital data traffic between the engine’s EEC and the aircraft systems — including the engine’s fan speed (N1 command), which determines the thrust the engine must produce.

Affected engine can still be manually controlled

According to the safety note, “AFDX interface fault… causes loss of thrust” by corrupting the N1 command (engine fan speed), leading to thrust fluctuations, autothrust disengagement, and unreliable thrust response.

Critically, the affected engine does not shut down, and thrust can still be manually controlled through the thrust levers. But the loss of autothrust and the risk of uncommanded thrust in certain phases of flight, especially takeoff or go-around, create what EASA categorises as an “unsafe condition.”

And this requires mandatory corrective action once an approved fix exists. The documents said that temporary mitigations are already in place, and the final fix is required by the first quarter of 2026.

Rolls-Royce, Airbus solution for AFDX faults

Rolls-Royce has introduced several interim mitigations over the past year, including repeated inspections of solder joints for integrity, according to the documents. An engineering note from May states that Rolls-Royce and Airbus are developing a final solution for the engine’s EEC. A new software standard, 'EEC SW 13.05', changes how the engine responds to faults on the digital data-link card or AFDX.

The updated software will improve the AFDX interface logic and automatically switch to a healthy channel if the system detects bad data.

Airbus did not respond to an email for updates on its progress on this software solution.

The documents said that the updated software will improve the AFDX interface logic and automatically switch to a healthy channel if the system detects bad data. This prevents corruption of the engine fan-speed (N1) command and helps prevent a 'loss of thrust', keeping the engine stable even if the AFDX data card starts to produce intermittent errors.

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Certification for new software in Q1 2026

The documents say, “EASA has confirmed this software standard will be mandated once certified.”

The certification target for the new EEC software is the first quarter of 2026. A regulator-mandated software redesign for an AFDX-EEC interface on a long-range, wide-body aircraft is rare, sources told The Federal. In this case, when the update happens, it will likely apply to all Trent 900 engines in service, meaning the entire global A380 fleet powered by Rolls-Royce may require modification. Airbus has manufactured more than 250 A380s to date; of which about 180-190 are in regular service worldwide on an average day. Luckily, these Trent 900 LOTC incidents have not caused any fatal accidents so far.

Lufthansa A380 June 2024 incident

The notes also confirm a 'loss of thrust' event on June 15, 2024, on a Deutsche Lufthansa A380 (DLH A380 DAMIN). The plane apparently experienced “an engine three thrust loss of approximately 20% during the climb phase of flight.”

The crew responded by moving the thrust lever to idle and then to 30%, but “no reaction seen on the engine,” prompting an engine shutdown and an in-flight relight, which succeeded.

Rolls-Royce’s analysis found the event “was consistent with an AFDX interface fault, linked to solder joint cracking on the AFDX [card],” the same failure mode behind the 11 'loss of thrust' cases recorded since 2011.

Again, Airbus did not respond to requests for comment.

Two parallel safety pressures for Airbus

The timing means that Airbus now faces two major, unrelated safety remediation programmes across two different aircraft families

1. A320-family flight-control computer vulnerability

Radiation-induced processor corruption requiring fleetwide software modification.

2. A380-family Trent 900 loss of thrust control events

A decade-long digital-interface failure requiring a regulator-mandated new EEC software package.

For the A320s, Airbus has ordered an immediate rollback to an older, proven software load as a temporary safety measure, and is also working on a revised 'fixed' software version that will be rolled out later after validation and regulatory approval. But the long-term plan and software fix will likely roll it out gradually across the A320 fleet, said industry sources.

For airlines, the consequences will likely include: maintenance downtime for both A320 and A380 fleets and software uploads requiring grounding and engineering sign-off. It could also mean potential operational disruptions as compliance deadlines approach and increased regulatory scrutiny over Airbus’s digital-systems resilience.

A critical time for Europe’s aviation giant

The juxtaposition of these two issues — one rooted in the radiation resilience of flight-control hardware, the other in digital engine-command integrity — draws new attention to the digital architecture of modern fly-by-wire aircraft.

While both problems are fixable, each demands an engineering response and fleetwide coordination. And with EASA planning to mandate the Trent 900 software once certified, the next 12–18 months will test Airbus’s ability to simultaneously manage safety compliance across two of its most important commercial programmes, said industry observers.

A Boeing issue as well

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has documented that Boeing’s GE engines have faced a comparable FADEC-level vulnerability caused by faulty soldering on the MN4 processor,a small control chip inside the engine computer's FADEC. The FAA/GE issued a Service Bulletin FAA-2021-0273-0013 Attachment 2 relating to the loss of thrust control issue.

Solder fault on engine chip can cause thrust loss

The MN4 microprocessor — a small control chip inside the engine’s FADEC — handles the interpretation of data and commands for the fuel-metering valves in Boeing’s GE engines. And that “faulty soldering..might weaken and lose contact due to the thermal stress after a number of cycles".

When this solder connection degrades, meaning the chip’s physical contact with the engine computer becomes intermittent, “...loss of signal processing and engine control faults can occur,” said technical notes. The FAA service bulletin explicitly records that there has been a known instance of “an LOTC event due to an EEC MN4 microprocessor solder ball failure.”