Airbus issues emergency warning for 6,000 passenger jets as US flight’s ‘uncontrolled
Airbus, one of the biggest aircraft makers globally, has issued a major warning that the company said could likely ground many passenger jets worldwide.
The aeronautics company announced Friday that they have discovered a potential vulnerability in the software on board the Airbus A320 during solar storms, which may hinder pilots from steering or stabilizing the plane while in the air.
Airbus issued an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT), a global warning that urges all airlines using the A320 passenger jet to immediately update their software and hardware to better protect against radiation interference.
‘Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in-service which may be impacted,’ the company said in a statement Friday.
The affected planes are used by airlines around the globe, including by American Airlines, who reportedly has the largest fleet of A320s, with 480 jets. In the US, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and JetBlue also operate three of the top 10 largest fleets of A320s worldwide.
Germany‘s Lufthansa, India‘s IndiGo, and easyJet in the UK revealed that they would also have to pull several of their passenger planes from service in order to update the vulnerable computer systems, according to Reuters.
Industry safety experts believe the problem originated on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey that suddenly suffered an uncontrolled drop in altitude of thousands of feet on October 30, injuring at least 15 people.
An investigation involving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found intense solar radiation corrupted critical data in the flight control computers, causing the plane to momentarily lose accurate positioning information and plunge downwards.
Airbus has issued an emergency alert for the A320 passenger jet (Pictured) which could suffer electronics problems during solar storms
Intense solar activity in Earth’s atmosphere results from solar flares or coronal mass ejections striking the planet with charged particles that can damage electronic (Stock Image)
Intense solar radiation in Earth’s atmosphere is often caused by solar flares or coronal mass ejections, which bombard the planet with powerful bursts of charged particles and electromagnetic energy.
These space weather events can sometimes interfere with satellites, GPS, radio signals, and, in this case, even the electronics inside modern aircraft flying at high altitudes.
Daily Mail has reached out to both Airbus and JetBlue for comment regarding the incident and how many flights may be grounded by the emergency warning.
The A320 recently became the best-selling commercial aircraft in history, surpassing the Boeing 737. Industry experts fear the problem could impact more than 6,000 jets.
‘Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,’ the company confirmed in their statement.
The Airbus A320 family includes the A319, A320, and longer A321 models, and more than 12,000 have now been delivered around the world.
It is a narrow-body, twin-engine plane designed mainly for short and medium-haul flights, like New York to Los Angeles or London to Madrid, and is the aircraft flyers are most likely to board on a typical domestic or regional trip.
Depending on how each airline configures its seats, a single A320-family jet can carry anywhere from about 120 to 240 passengers, making it the airline workhorse that flies millions of people every day.
JetBlue Flight 1230, an Airbus 320, is believed to be the origin of the emergency warning, which affects all A320s that may be vulnerable to solar radiation (Pictured: A JetBlue A320)
Several passengers were injured on an October 30 JetBlue flight from Mexico to New Jersey after the plane suffered a control issue, the airline revealed
Flyers on social media have already begun to claim that their flights have been cancelled amid the mass A320 groundings.
On Reddit, one passenger allegedly on board an A321 posted that the airport in Istanbul, Turkey was filled with planes coming in for a landing, although it’s unclear if this was related to the Airbus software issues.
‘Captain says there are so many aircrafts on the ground, and we don’t know how long more we will need to wait to be able to leave the aircraft,’ the social media user said.
During the October 30 incident, JetBlue Flight 1230 was cruising at 35,000 feet when the solar radiation caused the uncontrolled drop.
One of the next radio transmissions revealed that the A320 was leveling off at 10,000 feet so the plane could land in Tampa, Florida.
The pilot also reported that multiple passengers had been injured, likely suffering cuts on their heads as the flight plummeted almost 25,000 feet.
‘JetBlue 1230 descending to 10,000, we’re leveling 297,’ the pilot said in audio obtained from the air traffic control transmission by CBS42.
‘We need medical equipment; we have at least three people injured, maybe a laceration in the head.’
Geomagnetic storms, a major cause of solar radiation, occur when massive eruptions of solar plasma temporarily disrupt Earth’s magnetic field, similar to a gust of wind shaking a flagpole.
These storms, caused by solar wind and coronal mass ejections, typically take one to five days to reach Earth, allowing scientists to predict their impact on the planet in advance.
Two weeks ago, a severe G4, the second-highest classification for solar storms, struck Earth and was feared to trigger widespread outages to phone networks and power grids.
Previous solar storms have interfered with satellite communication throughout the world, including causing outages among Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service.