European aircraft manufacturer Airbus announced on the 28th an immediate recall of 6,000 A320 series aircraft for urgent repairs. This large-scale recall affects more than half of the global A320 fleet.
Airbus requires a software upgrade before the next flight to address potential risks posed by solar storms. The recall coincides with the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, the busiest travel weekend of the year, and is expected to cause global flight disruptions.
This software upgrade impacts flights worldwide. When the emergency maintenance directive was issued, around 3,000 A320 series aircraft were in operation.
From the United States and South America to Europe and India, several airlines said on the evening of the 28th that this inspection may lead to flight delays or cancellations.
There are about 11,300 A320 series airliners in service worldwide, among which 6,440 are the A320 core model first flown in 1987. This software upgrade is one of the largest maintenance events in Airbus' 55-year history.
On October 30, a JetBlue A320 flying from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey, suddenly lost altitude. Pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, and about 15 people onboard were hospitalized afterward. After investigating the incident, Airbus found that intense solar radiation could damage data critical to the operation of flight control systems.
Severe solar storm phenomena, such as solar flares and geomagnetic storms, could cause pilots to lose control of A320 series aircraft. Repairs and system upgrades are necessary to prevent incidents similar to the JetBlue case from happening again.
The BBC quoted experts as saying that for most planes, the fix is to install new computer software, which takes about three hours. However, about 900 older aircraft require the replacement of the computer; these will not be allowed to carry passengers again until the replacement is complete. The time required depends on the supply of replacement computers, and it is currently unclear whether parts supply is sufficient to meet demand.
American Airlines, the world's largest A320 operator, stated that about 340 of its 480 A320 aircraft are affected. American Airlines expects most repairs will be completed by the 29th, with each plane requiring about two hours to complete the work.