Explained: Why Airbus issued an urgent safety alert for A320 aircraft?

Airbus has issued an urgent global alert to all A320-family operators, instructing them to immediately rectify a newly-identified software fault that could affect flight-control systems on thousands of aircrafts.

The directive was issued on Saturday (November 29) after Airbus determined that “intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.”

The software rollback is expected to be completed within 2-3 days, with normal operations likely to resume by Monday or Tuesday. Around 1,000 older aircraft will require hardware modifications, a process that will take longer, Airbus said.

Also Read: IndiGo, Air India face major disruptions as Airbus flags A320 software upgrade

The warning follows a JetBlue A320 incident on October 30, when the aircraft “unexpectedly pitched downwards without pilot input.”

Global flights hit

Worldwide, the issue has affected around 6,000 aircraft, nearly half of Airbus’s single-aisle fleet, hitting major carriers such as American Airlines, Delta and IndiGo during the peak holiday travel period.

In India, also as many as 350 A320-family aircraft operated by IndiGo and the Air India group are affected.

The grounding is significant, given that Airbus and its main rival Boeing together account for more than three-quarters of the world’s commercial aircraft fleet, making any large-scale recall immediately disruptive to global air traffic.

Why rate safety update?

The rare safety directive follows an October 30 incident, involving a JetBlue A320 flying from Cancun to Newark, which “unexpectedly pitched downward without pilot input”.

The aircraft experienced a sudden, uncommanded loss of altitude at 35,000 feet, forcing an emergency diversion to Tampa, where between 15 and 20 passengers were taken to hospital.

The altitude drop prompted an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. The US National Transportation Safety Board said the pitch-down “likely occurred during an ELAC (flight-control computer) switch change”.

Also Read: Air India places order for 100 more Airbus aircraft

Airbus’s internal investigation linked the sudden altitude loss, brief but severe enough to exceed normal operating limits, to solar radiation corrupting data in the Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC), although the autopilot corrected the trajectory.

The issue affects the Elevator Aileron Computer (ELAC B) with software version L104, which governs elevation calculations and flight-surface control. At high altitudes during solar flares, the software may be vulnerable to data corruption.

Solar-radiation risk?

Solar radiation refers to streams of energetic particles and electromagnetic waves emitted by the sun, including ultraviolet rays, X-rays and high-energy protons and electrons.

In aviation, heightened solar activity, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, can interfere with an aircraft’s electronic systems.

This interference can disrupt sensitive systems, including navigation, communications and flight-control data. As a result, solar radiation is an important facto in aircraft design, system hardening and overall airspace safety.

In extreme cases, such interference could cause the aircraft’s elevators to move unexpectedly, potentially pushing an aircraft beyond its structural limits, according to Aerospace Global.

How to resolve issue?

Most aircraft can be repaired quickly by reverting to an earlier software version. Airlines must roll back the ELAC software to version L103 or replace the affected hardware, a procedure that takes roughly three hours per aircraft, before the next commercial flight.

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Solar activity peaks roughly every 11 years, and the current cycle is producing heightened radiation events that already disrupt high-altitude communications. This software flaw underscores the growing need for radiation-hardened avionics and improved space-weather monitoring.

Future mitigations may include shielded processors or real-time solar-storm alerts, but the immediate groundings aim to prevent a repeat of the JetBlue incident.