Airbus asked yesterday to update the control software of the A320 aircraft, which could be damaged by intense solar radiation activity.
According to some sources, in addition to the software update, a hardware realignment may also be necessary, which would lead to heavy disruptions to operations. Indian airlines IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express have announced that between 200 and 250 flights will be delayed or canceled following Airbus’ request.
In total, Indian airlines have around 560 A320 family aircraft, but they have not disclosed the number of affected aircraft.
Airbus said in a statement that analysis of a recent event involving an A320 aircraft revealed that intense solar radiation can corrupt data critical to the operation of flight controls. “We apologize for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, keeping safety as our top priority,” the aircraft manufacturer said, adding that it had proactively asked aviation authorities around the world to ask operators for immediate precautionary action via an alert.
Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) canceled 95 domestic flights on Saturday due to a software malfunction affecting thousands of Airbus aircraft around the world. The problem specifically affected 34 A320 jets of the Japanese company which require an urgent update of the on-board software. The cancellations affected around 13,200 passengers, mainly in transit from Haneda airport in Tokyo, but also from smaller airports such as Akita, Saga and Tottori. Airbus confirmed that the defect is due to an anomaly caused by solar radiation, capable of corrupting data essential for flight control.
The alarm was raised after an incident in October, when a JetBlue A320 suffered an unexpected dive during flight. Japan Airlines (JAL), the other national carrier, said it was not affected by the incident, as its fleet does not have the same type of software vulnerabilities. ANA ensures that it is in close contact with Airbus to complete the updates and restore regular service as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the company has activated passenger assistance procedures, with options for rerouting on other flights or full refund.