Flights around the world are experiencing delays and cancellations following a major directive from Airbus. The company has ordered fixes for approximately 6,000 of its A320 series planes.
Airbus stated the action is a precautionary measure. This decision comes after an analysis of a recent incident involving an A320 aircraft. The company revealed that intense solar radiation can corrupt data that is critical to the proper functioning of flight controls.
According to industry sources, the event under review was a JetBlue flight on October 30th. The flight was traveling from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey. During the journey, the plane suddenly lost altitude and was forced to make an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency airworthiness directive. This directive requires all affected planes to revert to an earlier version of their software before they are permitted to fly again. Airbus also noted that a smaller group of these aircraft will require a hardware change in addition to the software update.