Airlines Rush to Fix Thousands of Airbus A320 Jets After Solar Radiation Warning

Airlines worldwide are racing to repair thousands of Airbus A320-family jets after Airbus warned that intense solar radiation can corrupt flight-control data — a fault linked to an October 30 emergency diversion.

What happened

On October 30, an Airbus A320 operating from Cancun to Newark experienced a sudden loss of altitude and diverted to Tampa, where about 15 people were taken to hospital. Airbus’s investigation concluded that intense solar activity can, in rare cases, corrupt data used by the flight-control computers on A320-family aircraft (A319, A320 and A321).

Scope and recommended fixes

Airbus says roughly 6,000 A320-family single-aisle jets may require corrective action. For most aircraft, the immediate remedy is a software rollback to a previous version — a procedure that typically takes about two hours and has allowed many planes to return to service quickly. However, about 900 older jets need a hardware modification that must be installed manually, which takes longer.

Regulatory response and airline actions

The European Union issued an airworthiness directive requiring affected aircraft to be repaired before carrying passengers again. Airlines across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific have been working through their fleets to implement the fixes.

Examples of airline responses include:

• American Airlines reported updating all but four of the 209 affected aircraft it had identified.
• Delta Air Lines said fewer than 50 A321neo aircraft were affected and expected updates to be completed quickly.
• United Airlines reported six jets affected with only minor disruption anticipated.
• JetBlue, which operates many A320/A321 aircraft, began repairs and said it would notify customers of changes.
• Jetstar in Australia said 34 of its 85 A320s were affected and canceled roughly 90 flights, with some disruption expected to continue into the following day.
• Other carriers — including Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Wizz Air, easyJet and British Airways — said some aircraft were affected but reported limited operational impact.

Why this matters

The A320 family uses fly-by-wire controls: pilots’ inputs are sent to computers that command the aircraft’s control surfaces. Corruption of data used by those systems can affect flight handling, so regulators and manufacturers have prioritized rolling back or updating systems until a permanent mitigation is in place.

Passenger impact

So far, widespread cancellations have been avoided in many major hubs, and most flights have operated on schedule or with short delays. Nevertheless, some regional carriers and specific routes have seen cancellations and passenger disruptions while hardware modifications are scheduled.

The papal aircraft was also identified as affected; Vatican officials confirmed the necessary updates were completed so a planned overseas trip could proceed with the same plane.

Bottom line: The risk appears to be rare and the immediate mitigation (software rollback) is quick for most jets, but airlines must complete mandated changes — especially hardware fixes on older aircraft — before returning those planes to passenger service.