The majority of Airbus planes grounded on Friday due to a software glitch were back in the air by Saturday morning.
According to a report by BBC News, around 6,000 of Airbus’s A320 fleet required an update before they could resume operations. This issue stemmed from the effects of a solar storm, which unleashed intense radiation capable of interfering with critical onboard data.
In severe cases, such disruptions can compromise the aircraft’s steering capabilities. The need for this software update was precipitated by a troubling incident at the end of October involving a JetBlue flight. The plane, traveling from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, unexpectedly lost altitude, allegedly due to radiation-induced errors in its control system. This alarming episode resulted in injuries to 15 passengers, some of whom required hospitalization following a rough emergency landing.
Airbus has indicated that the glitch affected roughly half of its fleet of 12,000 A320 aircraft. As a result, Air France had to cancel 35 flights on Friday, while German carrier Lufthansa anticipated a reduced number of delays over the weekend, as reported by AFP. Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), which operates 89 A320 aircraft, reassured travelers that flights would likely proceed as scheduled.
In response to the situation, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an emergency directive on Friday mandating that the affected planes undergo software updates before they could return to service. “The SAS team has worked through the night to install the required software on the impacted aircraft,” stated Alexandra Lindgren Kaoukji, head of press and communications at SAS, in an interview with Check-in.
As of Saturday, about 100 aircraft still awaited their updates. However, Copenhagen Airport assured travelers that the ongoing situation should not affect departures to or from the airport this weekend.
