Approximately 6,000 Airbus A320 aircraft must urgently replace flight-control software that is vulnerable to solar radiation, following an ‘incident’ in the United States involving a JetBlue aircraft at the end of October, a spokesperson for the European aerospace company told Agence France-Presse.
Airbus on Friday informed all customers using this software to “immediately stop flights” after an analysis of the technical incident “revealed that intense solar radiation could degrade data essential to the operation of the flight-control systems.”
The European manufacturer announced that it has ordered the immediate replacement of the software on a large number of its best-selling aircraft, the A320. According to industry sources, the measure will affect around 6,000 aircraft – more than 50% of the global fleet.
Airbus stated that a recent incident involving an A320 revealed that intense solar radiation can corrupt critical data needed for the operation of flight-control systems. “Airbus acknowledges that these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions for passengers and customers,” it noted.
Mass grounding
Airlines affected by the widespread A320 recall to fix the software malfunction must complete the work before the aircraft’s next flight, except for any repositioning flights to a maintenance base, according to an Airbus notice to airlines seen by Reuters.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will issue an emergency airworthiness directive, Airbus said.
For roughly two-thirds of the aircraft affected, the recall will result in only a relatively short grounding, as airlines will revert to a previous version of the software, according to industry sources.
However, the scale of the operation is expected to cause significant disruption, as the issue emerges just before the weekend with the highest travel volume of the year in the United States.
The incident that triggered this major repair effort involved a JetBlue Airways aircraft operating a flight from Cancún, Mexico, to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on 30 October. Flight 1230 made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida. Several people were taken to hospital after the Airbus A320 abruptly lost altitude due to a flight-control problem.
According to Airbus data, there are approximately 11,300 A320-family aircraft in operation worldwide, of which 6,440 are the core A320 model.
CSEO warning
According to a statement by the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation, the incident in the Americas highlights a growing vulnerability that it has long warned about.
“As modern electronics become smaller and more complex, they become increasingly susceptible to subatomic particles ejected by the Sun – effectively Space Weather and/or Solar Storms.”
CSEO head George A. Danos said: "The Airbus incident is the 'canary in the coal mine', it is a wake-up call, but it was not unexpected to the scientific community."
According to CSEO, this real-world crisis validates the urgent mission of C-SpaRC – the International Space Innovation Centre, designated as a COSPAR Centre of Excellence, one of only two worldwide – which is currently deploying advanced AI and biological research from Cyprus to predict and mitigate exactly these types of threats.
“This is exactly why C-SpaRC was established. We are not just studying the stars; we are building the shield to help protect our technological way of life on Earth," said Danos.
The event also underscores the “critical importance” of the Nicosia Heliophysics Guidelines announced earlier this month at the COSPAR 2025 Global Space Symposium in Nicosia, said the CSEO statement.
“These guidelines establish a global protocol for studying, protecting against, and mitigating the effects of space weather.”
Source: CNA, CSEO