Airlines adopt software fix for Airbus A320 after plane has sudden altitude drop

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An aircraft heavily used by commercial airlines around the world needs a software fix to address an issue that contributed to a sudden drop in altitude of a JetBlue plane last month, the manufacturer and European aviation safety regulators said Friday.

The step may result in some flight delays as U.S. travelers return home from the Thanksgiving holidays.

Airbus said an analysis of the JetBlue incident revealed intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued a directive requiring operators of the A320 to address the issue. The agency said this may cause “short-term disruption” to flight schedules.

American Airlines was among the carriers addressing the order. It’s begun identifying and completing the software update and expects the work on the vast majority of its A320 planes to be completed Friday and Saturday. The fix should take about two hours for many aircraft, American said.

The airline expects some delays but it said it’s focused on limiting cancellations as customers return home from Thanksgiving holiday travel. It said safety would be its overriding priority.

American has about 480 planes from the A320 family. About 340 of them were identified as requiring the software replacement but American believes the actual number will be fewer.

Delta said it expected the issue to affect less than 50 of its A321neo aircraft. United and Hawaiian Airlines said they weren’t affected.

Mike Stengel, a partner with the aerospace industry management consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, said the fix could be addressed between flights or on overnight plane checks.

“Definitely not ideal for this to be happening on a very ubiquitous aircraft on a busy holiday weekend,” Stengel said. “Although again the silver lining being that it only should take a few hours to update the software.”

At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after the Oct. 30 incident on board 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’s one of the world’s biggest airplane manufacturers alongside Boeing.

The A320 is the primary 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 single-aisle aircraft family, Airbus’ website said.