By Theo Leggett, International business correspondent, and Yang Tian, BBC News
Thousands of Airbus jets have been temporarily grounded after the manufacturer discovered intense solar radiation can corrupt onboard flight-control computer data. The issue affects about 6,000 aircraft in the A320 family — roughly half of Airbus’s global fleet — including the A318, A319, A320 and A321.
Airbus found the vulnerability while investigating an October incident in which a JetBlue flight between the US and Mexico suddenly lost altitude and made an emergency landing in Florida; at least 15 people were injured. The manufacturer said that was the only such incident reported.
On around 5,100 aircraft the problem can be fixed with a software update that typically takes about three hours. About 900 older aircraft require physical replacement of onboard computers and cannot carry passengers until the work is done; timing will depend on replacement-unit availability. Airbus apologised and said it recognised the operational disruption to passengers and customers.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive requiring the issue be addressed before affected planes carry passengers again. Aircraft may operate “ferry flights” without passengers to reach maintenance facilities.
Airlines are taking different approaches. Lufthansa has indicated it may ground aircraft to perform the updates; other carriers say the impact will be limited. British Airways is not expected to be heavily affected. Wizz Air and Air India reported they are undertaking updates. EasyJet said it expected some disruption but had already completed updates on many aircraft and planned full service on Saturday. In the US, American Airlines said 340 of its planes were affected and expected some delays while most updates would be finished within days; Delta said it expected limited impact. In Australia, Jetstar cancelled about 90 flights after confirming roughly a third of its fleet was impacted.
In the UK, disruption at airports has so far been limited: Gatwick reported “some disruption” while Heathrow had not seen cancellations. Tim Johnson, policy director at the Civil Aviation Authority, said the directive “unfortunately may mean there is some disruption, some delays or cancellations over the coming days” but stressed that aviation remains one of the safest forms of transport. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the impact on UK airlines seemed limited and praised the swift identification and response, reflecting high global safety standards.
The technical problem relates to software that calculates a plane’s altitude. Airbus found that at high altitudes, intense solar radiation can periodically corrupt the data used by that software. The A320 family uses fly-by-wire systems, where pilot inputs are interpreted by computers rather than through direct mechanical links; corrupted data in those systems can therefore affect flight-control behaviour.
Regulators and airlines say the vast majority of aircraft can be returned to service after the update, but a smaller number requiring hardware replacement means some prolonged disruptions are likely while parts and maintenance capacity are scheduled.
