Thousands of passenger planes need to be fixed to avoid pilots losing control during a solar storm
Thousands of the most popular passenger aircraft in the world need immediate maintenance to protect from a problem that injured passengers and caused an emergency landing last month.
Airbus found intense solar storms, like solar flares, could cause pilots to lose control of the Airbus A320 series of planes, including A319, A320, and A321s. About 6,000 of the single-aisle planes, which are the bestselling passenger aircraft in the world, need the repairs.
“Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls,” Airbus said in a statement.
On October 30, JetBlue Flight 1230 – an A320 – was flying from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey when it suddenly dove down in altitude. The pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, where about 15 people were taken to the hospital.
Airbus investigated the incident and on Friday told airlines in an “Alert Operators Transmission” that the fix was needed. The company believes it is the only time this specific problem has happened, but says it “proactively worked with aviation authorities… keeping safety as our number one and overriding priority.”
The Airbus A320 series has what’s called fly-by-wire controls: physical movements from the pilot run through computers which, in turn, adjust the plane’s control surfaces.
An airworthiness directive from the European Union requires airlines to make the repairs before the planes can carry passengers again.
Most planes can be repaired in about two hours.
American Airlines has about 340 of the aircraft which need to be updated, according to a statement from the airline.
“Anticipating emergency airworthiness directives from EASA and FAA, American began identifying and completing the software update, and we expect the vast majority of aircraft to be complete today and tomorrow,” the statement noted.
American said while it expects “some delays” as a result of the work, it is “intently focused on limiting cancellations — especially with customers returning home from holiday travel.”
It hopes to have all of the repairs made by Sunday.
Delta Air Lines says fewer than 50 of it’s A321neo aircraft will be impacted and the work should be complete by Saturday morning.
“As safety comes before everything else, Delta will fully comply with a directive and expects any resulting operational impact to be limited,” the airline said in a statement.
United and Southwest Airlines do not have any of the impacted aircraft.
JetBlue did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for information on their repair plans.
CNN’s Pete Muntean and Taylor Romaine contributed to this report.
