Airbus announced on Friday that it is mandating an immediate software change across thousands of its A320-family aircraft, following a serious flight control incident linked to solar radiation.
Industry sources said the directive will affect around 6,000 jetsโmore than half of the global A320 fleet. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is expected to issue an emergency airworthiness directive to enforce the recall.
Airbus explained that intense solar radiation was found to corrupt data critical to flight controls. โAirbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,โ the company said.
For roughly two-thirds of the affected aircraft, airlines will briefly ground planes to revert to a previous software version. However, hundreds of jets may require hardware changes, potentially keeping them out of service for weeks. The timing is expected to cause significant disruption, coinciding with the busiest U.S. travel weekend of the year.
The sweeping action was triggered by an incident on October 30 involving JetBlue Flight 1230 from Cancun to Newark. The aircraft suffered a sudden, uncommanded drop in altitude due to a flight control problem, forcing an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida. Several passengers were hospitalized.
Airbus data shows there are about 11,300 A320-family aircraft in service worldwide, including 6,440 of the core A320 model.
