After a software glitch affected more than 6,000 Airbus A320s last week, the plane maker said on Monday that fewer than 100 A320s remained grounded due to a critical software update, signaling a return to normal for flight operations.
“Out of a total of around 6,000 potentially affected aircraft, the vast majority have now received the necessary modifications,” Airbus said in a press release.
“We are working with our airline customers to support the modification of the less than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service,” the aircraft manufacturer added.
The update comes days after Airbus announced on Friday that the affected planes could not fly until a critical software update was made, with the problem emerging following an incident in the United States.
What was the software glitch?
The defect affecting a number of Airbus A320 aircraft affected the nose angle control system, or “angle of attack”, of the flights, a critical part of the flight control system.
It was found that intense solar radiation from events such as solar flares could corrupt data critical to the operation of the flight control system and, in the worst cases, could lead to uncontrolled elevator movement, causing the aircraft’s nose to pitch unexpectedly, which is dangerous and potentially catastrophic.
How was the bug discovered?
The glitch came to light after a JetBlue Airbus A32 flying from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, US unexpectedly lost altitude, injuring passengers.
The investigation suggested that sunlight may have played a role, prompting regulators to rush to fix the fault.
With the A320 family being the world’s most widespread passenger jet with around 11,300 in service worldwide, regulators have rushed to take a “better safe than sorry” approach.
What does the repair include?
Despite the alarming nature of the problem, the fix is fairly simple and requires a quick software rollback to an older, tested and stable version of the software.
While this is the case for most affected aircraft, some older models require a piece of hardware to be replaced.
The entire update process takes two to three hours.
How are the airlines doing?
Most major airlines, including Indian and US carriers such as Air India, IndiGo, American Airlines, United, Delta and Wizz Air, among others, have already completed upgrades to almost all of their aircraft with minimal disruption.
The exception is JetBlue, which had to cancel about 70 flights on Sunday due to fleet planning.
