Airlines race to fix Airbus planes after warning solar radiation could cause pilots to lose control

CNN

By Aaron Cooper, Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — Airlines around the world are racing to avoid widespread cancellations by fixing thousands of Airbus aircraft that need immediate maintenance to protect from a problem that injured passengers and caused an emergency landing last month.

Plane manufacturer 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, but disruption so far has been minimal.

“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 a 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.”

Most planes can be repaired in about two hours by simply reverting to the previous software, Airbus told CNN on Saturday, meaning that disruption seems relatively limited despite it being one of the busiest travel weekends for Americans celebrating Thanksgiving.

However, for about 900 of the older aircraft affected, the fix is more complicated since they will need to have new hardware manually installed.

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.

The airlines’ scrambled repairs seemed to avoid any widespread disruption by Saturday morning. Arrivals boards at major airport hubs like Dallas Fort Worth, Dubai, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Tokyo Haneda and London Heathrow indicated that most flights were running on time, or with short delays.

American Airlines had completed all except four of the 209 aircraft that needed to be updated by Saturday morning, less than the 340 it had earlier predicted, according to a statement from the airline.

American initially warned of “some delays” as a result of the work, but it said on Saturday it expected no further operational impact. It hopes to have all of the repairs made by Sunday.

Delta Air Lines said fewer than 50 of its 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.

Six planes in United Airlines’ fleet are affected and there will be “minor disruption to a few flights,” the carrier said.

JetBlue, which operates a fleet mostly made up of A320 and A321 aircraft, did not say how many of their planes needed to be fixed, but told CNN in a statement it has already started repairs.

“Our teams are doing everything possible to minimize disruptions to customers as this work is completed,” JetBlue said. “We will notify customers of any flight changes and customers can always check their flight status on jetblue.com or on the JetBlue app.”

Meanwhile, in the Asia-Pacific region, Jetstar Airways Australia and Air New Zealand have also taken precautionary measures. IndiGo and Air India Express are expecting to complete the fix on their aircraft by Saturday, Reuters reported.

Thirty-four of Jetstar’s 85 Airbus A320s are affected by the issue, the airline said. Around 90 flights have been canceled overall, affecting thousands of passengers, and further disruptions are expected through Sunday, chief pilot Tyrone Simes told reporters at Melbourne Airport.

Airbus and the European Aviation Safety Authority have told airlines to reverse the upgrade before letting affected planes fly again, Simes said.

In Europe, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, EasyJet and British Airways all said some of their aircraft were affected but downplayed the effect of that on their operations.

Meanwhile, the papal plane — known as “Shepherd One” — was also affected by the issue, though the Vatican said the necessary updates were carried out Saturday afternoon, so Pope Leo’s trip to Turkey and Lebanon will proceed with the same plane.

CNN’s Pete Muntean, Taylor Romaine, Laura Sharman and Christopher Lamb contributed to this report.

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This story has been updated with additional content.