2011-07 · NASA ASRS report 956940
A320 flight crew experiences a dual ELAC failure during descent which is annunciated by the ECAM but without any ECAM actions. Flight Manual procedures indicated a reset of the ELAC's; which was successful; and a normal landing ensued.
We experienced a double Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC) failure on the arrival phase. Approximately 8 miles west of the airport descending to 6;000 FT; the autopilot kicked itself off. As the flying pilot; I took control of the aircraft and began to manually fly. We then realized that the failure was due to the ELAC ECAM. The First Officer read the messages off the ECAM. We were in 'Alternate Law' without an autopilot We had an ELAC fault and an ELAC pitch trim failure in BOTH ELAC's. Note: The ECAM did not give us the 'Blue to do items' it just gave us the problem; VRef + 10; Direct Law with gear down info. The First Officer requested an extended downwind and declared an emergency. The irregular procedure in the flight manual was then referenced and read by the First Officer. When the ELAC switches were cycled we regained the functionality of both ELAC's. We then finished up the action items per the manual and took a turn back toward the airport. Landing and taxi in was uneventful.
During arrival just prior to turning downwind; auto pilot pilot kicked off accompanied by slight roll to the left. Captain hand flew. Numerous ECAM's popped up: alternate law; ELAC faults 1 and 2; ELAC pitch faults 1 and 2. We declared emergency. I ran the ECAM and numerous checklists while Captain flew and talked with ATC. ELAC's were recovered just prior to the Outer Marker. Captain landed uneventfully.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.