Flights disrupted as Airbus requests modifications to thousands of planes

Airbus has warned flights will be disrupted after it requested immediate modifications to thousands of planes over the discovery that intense radiation from the sun could corrupt data crucial to flight controls.

About 6,000 planes are thought to be affected, about half the European aerospace giant’s global fleet, but it is understood most will be able to undergo a simple software update.

The UK’s aviation regulator said carrying out the updates would likely cause “some disruption and cancellations to flights”.

Airbus said the problem was discovered following a recent “incident” in the US involving an A320 family aircraft and apologised for disruption to passengers.

The incident, which happened on 30 October, involved a JetBlue Airways A320 making an emergency landing in Florida, after a sudden drop in altitude. At least 15 people were reported to have been injured.

The issue affects the A320 – its best selling aircraft – but also models from the same design fleet, including the A318, A319 and the A321.

It is understood that on around 5,100 Airbus planes, the issue can be addressed using a relatively simple software update. However, the remaining aircraft which are older versions will need new hardware as well and will need to be taken out of service to be modified.

Airbus said it acknowledged this will lead to “operational disruption to passengers and customers”, and has apologised.

Wizz Air said some of its aircraft were among those that require updates and that it had scheduled the necessary maintenance, while Air India said the directive from Airbus could lead to delays.

British Airways is understood not be be heavily impacted by the issue. Easyjet said it was “expecting this to result in some disruption” and would inform passengers directly.

“Safety is our highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with manufacturers guidelines,” the airline said.

The Civil Aviation Authority [CAA], the UK’s aviation regulator, said “only some UK airlines are affected”.

“The requirement will mean the airlines flying these aircraft will in some cases have to change software over the days ahead or remain on the ground from Sunday onwards until the software has been changed,” the regulator said.

Giancarlo Buono, director of aviation safety at CAA, added: “Passengers should check with their airline whether their flights are affected. Airlines have a duty of care to look after passengers when a flight is delayed.”

The problem affecting the aircraft is that intense solar and cosmic radiation at high altitudes can affect the working of the ELAC computer, which controls the elevators and ailerons. These are aerodynamic surfaces that are used to make the aircraft pitch up or down or roll to turn.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an emergency airworthiness directive, ordering airlines to replace ELAC computers on the worst affected planes before carrying passengers again.

The A320 family are what is known as “fly by wire” planes. This means there is no direct mechanical link between the controls in the cockpit and the parts of the aircraft that actually govern flight. The pilot’s actions are interpreted by computers – which actually “fly” the plane.

Airbus has issued an alert to airlines requesting them to take “immediate precautionary action…in order to implement the available software and/or hardware protection and ensure the fleet is safe to fly”.