On October 30, an Airbus A320 flight from Cancun to Newark operated by JetBlue suddenly lost altitude and the pilots made an emergency landing in Tampa. A reported 15 people were taken to a local hospital.
On Friday, Airbus released an “update on A320 Family precautionary fleet action” on Friday, alerting pilots to the possibility that solar radiation may cause loss of control for the A320 family of planes—including A319s, A320s, and A321s.
According to the update, Airbus said that analysis of this recent JetBlue event has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls. The sun’s current 11-year solar cycle peaked in 2024, and that solar maximum was much stronger than normal.
“Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in-service which may be impacted,” said the release. “Airbus has worked proactively with the aviation authorities to request immediate precautionary action from operators via an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT) in order to implement the available software and/or hardware protection, and ensure the fleet is safe to fly. This AOT will be reflected in an Emergency Airworthiness Directive from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).”
Airbus also acknowledged that these recommendations may result in operational disruptions to passengers and customers but stressed that safety was the company’s “number one and overriding priority.”
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