“Thousands of travelers worldwide were stranded after Airbus ordered immediate software fixes for 6,000 A320-series aircraft.”
Airbus issued an emergency directive on November 28 after determining that intense solar radiation could corrupt flight control data. The order stemmed from an October 30 JetBlue flight that dropped 100 feet in seven seconds before diverting to Tampa. More than half of the world’s A320 fleet was grounded during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. Airlines corrected most aircraft within 24 hours using a two-hour software update, though roughly 900 older planes required hardware replacements.