Airbus rush to update A320 software after plane’s sudden altitude drop • FRANCE 24 English

It’s a best-selling aircraft used by commercial airlines across the world. Airbus has ordered immediate repairs to 6,000 of its A320s, more than half of its global fleet, due to a flight control software issue. For safety reasons, the planes cannot fly until repaired. The flight system in question sends commands from the pilot side stick to elevators at the rear. It’s manufactured by the French company Telis, which insists it’s not responsible for the problem. The incident that prompted the recall involved a flight from Cancun to Newark on the 30th of October. Several passengers were hurt after a sharp loss of altitude, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing in Florida. After analysis, Airbus claims that intense solar radiation may have been the culprit. We need to talk about solar storms which are particles emitted by explosions on the sun’s surface that project a cloud of particles and can reach earth in about 20 hours. But if this happens with significant intensity, it can disrupt computers and therefore the flight control linked to the computer give you bad information. Repairs can be completed within a few hours for each plane, but disruptions will vary in length depending on the company. We apologize for any inconvenience and will work closely with operators while maintaining safety as our top priority. On Friday, Air France announced it was cancelling 35 flights, 5% of the airlines daily total. Meanwhile, American Airlines said 209 of its planes were affected and that it expects some delays. Colombian carrier Abiana said the recall concerned more than 70% of its fleet. It said it would halt ticket sales for travel dates through the 8th of December.

Airlines around the world canceled and delayed flights heading into the weekend to fix software on a widely used commercial aircraft after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month. Airbus said Friday that an examination of the JetBlue incident revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft.
#Airbus #aviation #JetBlue

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3 comments

  2. Solar Storm (Coronal Mass Ejection)

    It is well known that during big Solar Storms satellites and aircraft may be affected
    The Sun is now at its maximum on its 11 year cycle, that's why there are Auroras in lower latitudes
    Airbus has published an Emergency Airworthiness Directive to solve this matter
    Some 6.000 aircraft worldwide are affected
    15% of the aircraft will need a hardware change (hangar time)
    85% of the aircraft will just need a software update (2 hours job)
    This will cause delays, and some cancellations, starting this weekend

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