AIRBUS has ordered the urgent replacement of a flight-control software program in approximately 6,000 A320-family aircraft worldwide. This directive follows an investigation that found the software could be corrupted by solar radiation, prompted by an incident involving a JetBlue Airways jet in late October.

The finding is significant, affecting more than half of all in-service A320-family aircraft globally. Chinese carriers alone operate up to 2,015 of the affected jets. With about 11,300 Airbus A320-family aircraft currently in service worldwide, the urgent requirement for 6,000 of them means a majority of the global fleet is impacted.

The JetBlue incident occurred Oct. 30. An A320 flying from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, diverted to Tampa, Florida, for an emergency landing. A flight-control malfunction triggered an abrupt, uncommanded drop in altitude, resulting in several passengers being hospitalized.

The issue stems from a software version vulnerable to “particle upset,” a phenomenon in which solar particles cause bit flips in digital chips, corrupting critical data. Airbus states that intense solar radiation may damage flight-control data, necessitating a reversion to an earlier software version.

An industry insider said that reverting the software generally takes one to two hours. Only a small number of older aircraft may require hardware changes, which could temporarily reduce available capacity.

Some Chinese airlines conducted emergency inspections over the weekend to identify aircraft running the affected software, leading to delays and cancellations on certain flights.

According to data from Flight Manager DAST, Chinese carriers operated 2,015 A320-family jets as of the end of November, accounting for nearly half of the country’s commercial fleet across 24 airlines.(SD-Agencies)