An Airbus directive has ordered immediate software updates for 6,000 A320 planes, causing disruption to flights around the world. As reuters Note, this is more than half of the 11,300 A320 jets in operation. The narrow-body A320 is widely used globally, but its largest operator is American Airlines, which has 480 models in its fleet.
American Airlines said 340 of its 480 planes needed to be updated, taking up to two hours for each plane during one of the busiest weekends for travel in the US. told this cnbc He expects the “vast majority” of those planes to be completed by night, with only a few left on November 29. The recall also heavily impacts Asian carriers that rely on the A320 for short-haul flights. Japan’s ANA had to cancel 95 domestic flights for Saturday, affecting more than 13,000 passengers.
In its announcement, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it issued an emergency airworthiness directive after a problem was discovered on a JetBlue flight on October 30. Airbus said that analysis of the incident showed that “intense solar radiation could have corrupted data critical to the functioning of flight controls.” Solar flares, or bursts of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, are known to cause radio blackouts and disruption of satellite and GPS signals. To prevent future problems, affected aircraft must revert to an older version of their software.
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