Global flight cancellations: causes and consequences.
After a JetBlue flight plunged into the air on October 30, injuring at least 15 passengers, Airbus and European aviation safety regulators have discovered a critical software flaw in one of the A320 aircraft’s critical computers, which could have disrupted critical flight control data under extreme solar conditions.
Friday’s warning from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to ground some flights, followed by a warning from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has grounded nearly 6,000 Airbus aircraft in more than 65 countries, including the A318, A319, A320, and A321, for urgent software updates or hardware replacements. The sudden disruption, which occurred during the busiest travel days in the United States and some Asian countries, marked one of the most widespread technical crises in recent years in the aviation industry.
The cause of the disruption: new ELAC software and the role of solar radiation
Airbus has announced that the problem in the A320 family aircraft was caused by a defect in the new version of the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC) software, the software that is responsible for controlling the aircraft’s flight surfaces and ailerons. Studies have shown that intense solar radiation at high altitude can disrupt the system’s vital data and endanger the operation of flight control systems.
According to Airbus and safety authorities, most affected aircraft only need to quickly return to the previous version of the software, and this process typically takes two to three hours. However, around 900 older aircraft will need a complete ELAC computer replacement, which will take longer and could have a short-term impact on flight schedules.
The scale of the crisis: from the grounding of thousands of planes to the impact on weekend travel
The initial warning from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and Airbus’s confirmation of a flaw in the ELAC software, produced by aerospace and defense company Thales, has led to the temporary grounding of a significant part of the world’s A320 fleet. According to official announcements, around 6,000 aircraft, more than half of the family’s active fleet, had to undergo a software overhaul before they could be flown.