Airbusโ Orders Fixes for 6,000 A320 Planes amid Solar Radiation concerns
November 28,2025 – Global air travel is facing potential disruption โas Airbusโ has ordered fixes forโข approximately 6,000 โof its A320 series aircraft due to a newly identified risk of data corruption โaffecting flight controls. The issue, โคstemming from potential interference from intense solar radiation, prompted the company to โissue a fleet-wide precautionary action.
According to an official statement from Airbus, analysisโฃ ofโค a recent incident involving anโ A320 Familyโข aircraft revealed thatโ strong solar radiation could corrupt data โคcritical to the operation of the plane’s flight controls. “Analysis โขof โขa recent event involvingโค an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt โdata โcritical to โฃthe functioning of flight controls,” the company stated in a press release.
industry sources, cited โฃby Reuters, have linked the issue to a JetBlue flight onโ October 30th. Theโ flight, traveling from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey, experienced a sudden loss of altitude and was forced to make an emergency โคlanding in Tampa, Florida.
The federalโ Aviation Administration (FAA) has responded by issuing an emergency airworthiness directive. This directive requires airlines to revert affected aircraft to earlierโ software versions to ensure safe operation.Airbus has โขindicated that a โขsmaller number of planes will require hardware modifications to fully address the vulnerability.
the A320 family of aircraft is one of the moast widely used in the world, and โthis โdirective โis expected to cause delays and cancellationsโ as airlines work to implement the necessary fixes. Passengers are โฃadvised to check with their โairlines for the latest information regarding โtheir flights. The long-term impact on air travel schedules remains to be โคseen, but Airbus is prioritizing the safety ofโค its aircraft โand passengers.
Understandingโ the Risk: Solar Radiation and Aircraft systems
While seemingly unusual, โthe vulnerability to solar radiation highlights the increasing complexityโ of modern aircraft systems. โฃ Modern planes rely heavily โฃonโฃ elegant electronics,โค and these systems can be susceptible to interference โคfrom external electromagnetic sources, including solar โฃflares and coronal mass ejections. Manufacturers are continually working to harden these systems against such interference, but the recent Airbus incident demonstrates that vulnerabilities can still โฃexist.