A plane widely used by commercial airlines around the world needs a software fix to fix a problem that contributed to a JetBlue plane’s sudden drop in altitude last month, the manufacturer and European aviation safety regulators said Friday.
The move could lead to flight delays as U.S. travelers return home after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Airbus said an analysis of the JetBlue incident found that intense solar radiation could corrupt data critical to the operation of flight controls on the A320 family of planes.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has issued a directive requiring A320 operators to address this issue. The agency said this could result in “short-term disruption” to flight schedules.
American Airlines has approximately 480 A320 family aircraft, of which 209 are affected. The fix is expected to take about two hours for many planes and updates should be completed for the vast majority by Friday, the airline said. A handful will be finished on Saturday.
American Airlines expects some delays, but it said it is focused on limiting cancellations as customers return home after the Thanksgiving holiday. He said safety would be his top priority.
Delta said it expected the problem to affect fewer than 50 of its A321neo planes. United said six planes in its fleet were affected and that it expects minor disruptions to a few flights. Hawaiian Airlines said it was not affected.
Mike Stengel, a partner at aerospace industry management consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said the problem could be fixed between flights or during nighttime plane checks.
“It’s certainly not ideal for this to happen on a very ubiquitous aircraft on a busy holiday weekend,” Stengel said. “Even again, the positive side is that updating the software should only take a few hours.”
At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured and taken to hospital after the Oct. 30 incident aboard the flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey. The plane was diverted to Tampa, Florida.
Airbus is registered in the Netherlands but has its main headquarters in France.
It is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, alongside Boeing.
The A320 is the main competitor to Boeing’s 737, Stengel said. Airbus updated its engine in the mid-2010s and planes in this category are called A320neo, he said.
The A320 is the world’s best-selling family of single-aisle aircraft, the Airbus website says.
