As reported by The Guardian, a directive from Airbus to repair 6,000 of its A320 series aircraft led to worldwide flight delays and cancellations.
The firm stated it is acting because “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.”
Reuters, quoting industry insiders, indicates that the incident was a JetBlue flight on October 30 from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, during which the aircraft abruptly descended and was forced to land urgently in Tampa.
Sources say the Federal Aviation Administration has released an urgent airworthiness order requiring the impacted aircraft to switch back to previous software versions before resuming flights. Airbus noted that a smaller number will require hardware modifications.
