The A320 recently overtook the Boeing 737 to become the most-delivered jetliner in history, and its withdrawal has caused varying degrees of havoc for airlines around the world. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the recall was “causing significant logistical challenges and delays.” Colombian airline Avianca said the issue affected more than 70% of its fleet and it had to stop selling tickets for flights until December 8.
The impact of the recall was less severe at the state level. Delta and United reported limited impact to their operations, while American Airlines said software fixes had been issued to all 209 of its affected aircraft.
Although US air travel had avoided major disruptions, the issue came to light after an October incident in which an Airbus A320 operated by JetBlue en route from Cancún, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey suddenly dropped at altitude and had to be rerouted to Tampa, Florida for an emergency landing.
Airbus said in a statement on Friday that the recall was issued because the company found that intense solar radiation could “corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls” in its A320s.
More specifically, according to FAA directive, a JetBlue flight in October experienced a malfunction in the elevator aileron computer (ELAC), which is a computer that controls the pitch or nose angle of the aircraft. Airbus believes that solar flares – intense and concentrated streams of electromagnetic solar radiation – may have corrupted the data and caused the ELAC to malfunction, causing the plane to go down suddenly.
The solution to the problem is a relatively quick return to the old software before the planes can fly again, except for some jets that may require complete hardware replacement.
Solar radiation is a headache for aviation, and the Sun has been getting more active lately. In September, researchers shared that the Sun may be entering an unexpected active phase, following a gradual increase in activity since 2008. Just last month, Earth was hit by several violent solar flares, with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center reporting two of these flares were capable of triggering massive radio blackouts.
Space meteorologist Tony Phillips said earlier this month that giant sunspots had been producing solar flares “for weeks” and that there was “no reason to think this activity would diminish.” In a blog post Sunday, Phillips said one particularly giant sunspot is now “turning toward Earth” and will have the potential to cause geomagnetic disturbances in future sun flares.
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