Airbus recalls A320s due to issues in flight-control software

Airbus issues a mass global recall of its A320 fleet, the largest affecting Airbus in its 55-year history, ordering an immediate software change before the next routine flight.

Europe’s leading aerospace manufacturer said in an announcement on Friday that a recent incident involving an A320 aircraft had revealed a flight-control software issue.

The company ordered an immediate software change, warning that in the current edition, intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of aircraft flight controls.

“Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in service which may be impacted,” the company warned.

It said the immediate software change is necessary in its 6,000 widely operating A320 family of jets, and must be carried out before the next routine flight.

“Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,” Airbus noted.

At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after the incident on board a flight from Cancun, Mexico.

The media reported global cancellations and delays of flights following the announcement of the faulty software in Airbus planes.

Some 3,000 A320-family jets were in the air worldwide shortly after the announcement.

American Airlines and Hungary’s Wizz Air said they had already identified which of their aircraft would need the software fix. United Airlines said it was not affected.

Airbus plane grounded due to US sanctions returns to Iran’s fleet

An Iranian private airline has finished repairs on a grounded A300-600 plane.

The world’s largest A320 operator, American, in a statement said about 340 of its 480 A320 aircraft require the software replacement, and it expects the majority of those fixes to be “complete today and tomorrow”, with about two hours required for each plane.

Other airlines, including Germany’s Lufthansa, India’s IndiGo, and the United Kingdom-based easyJet, said they would temporarily take their planes out of service for the repairs.

Colombian carrier Avianca said the recall affected more than 70 percent of its fleet, or about 100 jets, causing significant disruption over the next 10 days and prompting the airline to close ticket sales for travel dates through December 8.

Japan’s biggest airline, ANA, said it had been forced to cancel 65 flights on Saturday due to the recall. In India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the country’s aviation regulator, ordered airlines to halt all Airbus A320 flights until they complete the required modifications.

Air India said its engineers were working “around-the-clock” to complete the software update and “hardware realignment” and that no cancellations had resulted and there was no “major impact on schedule integrity across our network.”

The temporary groundings for repairs for some airlines could be much longer, since more than 1,000 of the affected jets may also have to have hardware changed, the sources were quoted as saying.

The setback appears to be among the largest mass recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history and comes weeks after the A320 overtook the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered model.

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