Aviation
Solar Flare Fiasco Forces Airbus A320 Fleet Fix
Global Grounding Grounds Travelers as Software Glitch Surfaces
3 MIN READ
By Timmy
Published:
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Thousands of Airbus A320 family aircraft sat idle worldwide on November 28, 2025, after engineers discovered that intense solar radiation could mess with critical flight control data.
The problem affects the fly-by-wire systems in the A318, A319, A320, and A321 models. It came to light after a JetBlue Airways flight from the US to Mexico dropped altitude suddenly in October 2025, forcing an emergency landing in Florida that injured at least 15 people. Airbus investigators found that solar radiation(energy the Sun releases in bursts) could interfere with onboard computers at high altitudes, throwing off elevation calculations and creating serious safety risks.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency responded with an emergency directive requiring immediate software updates or hardware replacements before any passenger flights could take off again. There are about 6,000 aircraft, more than half the global A320 fleet needed attention. Around 5,100 got a three-hour software patch, while 900 older models required physical computer swaps. Airlines could still fly planes empty to maintenance facilities.
Major carriers rushed to fix their fleets, creating chaos across the industry. American Airlines had 340 affected planes and warned passengers to expect delays during the busy Thanksgiving weekend, calling the effort "all hands on deck." Delta Air Lines said it expected minor problems, while JetBlue worked quickly on repairs. In Europe, Wizz Air and EasyJet pushed updates through overnight and were back to normal by Saturday, though EasyJet cautioned some issues might linger. Lufthansa anticipated a few cancellations, and Air France dealt with delays at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Australia's Jetstar cancelled 90 flights after losing a third of its fleet, with problems stretching into the weekend. Japan's ANA scrapped 95 flights, stranding 13,500 travelers. In India, IndiGo and Air India avoided cancellations but responded to safety warnings from the DGCA. The Philippines saw operations return to normal by November 29 after 82 cancelled flights affected 14,000 passengers.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury apologized publicly. "I want to sincerely apologise to our airline customers and passengers who are impacted now. But we consider that nothing is more important than safety when people fly on one of our Airbus Aircraft—like millions do every day." He said teams were working nonstop to roll out updates and get operations back to normal.
Aviation authorities stressed they were being cautious. Tim Johnson, policy director at the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, said mass groundings are "a very rare event" but pointed to aviation's strong safety record. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander praised how quickly the problem got resolved, noting British airlines seemed largely unaffected. Analyst Sally Gethin called the situation "very much out of the ordinary," with passenger impact depending on how each airline handled it.
The timing was terrible, hitting during peak travel seasons in several regions and frustrating thousands of passengers. But most airlines finished updates overnight, keeping long-term disruption minimal. Airbus says this is the only known incident of its kind, and the fixes will stop solar activity from causing potential problems.
