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The aircraft manufacturer Airbus urged to “immediately stop flights” of 6,000 of its A320 aircraft to replace a navigation control program vulnerable to solar radiation, a company spokesperson told AFP on Friday.
The announcement caused delays and cancellations on flights around the world, from the Philippines to Colombia.
The measure is taken after a technical incident at the end of October with a device in the United States that “revealed that intense solar radiation could corrupt data essential for the operation of flight commands,” the European giant explained to its clients in a statement.
Airbus urged them to “immediately stop flights” after analyzing the technical failure.
For most aircraft, switching software from your previous version will take “a few hours.” But for about 1,000 aircraft this will involve changing the hardware, “which will take weeks,” a source close to the matter explained to AFP.
This is the ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer) system, a computer that controls the elevators and ailerons of the airplane.
«Airbus recognizes that these recommendations will cause operational disruption for passengers and customers. “We apologize for the inconvenience caused and will work closely with operators, keeping safety as our absolute and paramount priority,” the company added.
– Affectations –
Air France reported that it canceled 35 flights on Friday and that it is calculating the number of impacts for Saturday.
“Customers affected by the cancellations are being informed individually by SMS and email,” a spokesperson said.
The Colombian Avianca also reported “significant” effects on its flights because the program update affects more than 70% of its fleet, and suspended the sale of tickets until December 8.
American Airlines anticipates “some delays” related to these adjustments, but estimates that the program update on its approximately 340 aircraft will be ready by Saturday.
When consulted by AFP, JetBlue did not comment on the incident, but explained that it had already begun the necessary modifications to “some A320s” and also to A321s.
While Air India warned of delays due to the grounding of some planes.
As for Delta Air Lines, the company expected to make the necessary upgrades by Saturday morning on part of its A320 and A321neo.
In the Philippines, local airlines Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific had to cancel more than 40 flights and offered refunds and rescheduling to affected passengers.
In Mexico, the low-cost airlines Volaris and Viva Aerobús reported this Friday that their operations will suffer delays, so they will take measures to mitigate the effects on travelers. They did not give details of how many flights will be affected or the number of aircraft that will have to make these updates.
– The failure –
The technical incident dates back to October 30, when an Airbus A320 of the JetBlue company suffered an in-flight control problem due to a computer failure.
This occurred during the cruise phase between Cancún (Mexico) and Newark (United States), when the plane descended suddenly without the intervention of the pilots.
The episode concluded with a landing in Tampa, Florida, and left several passengers injured, according to local firefighters.
The Airbus A320, which entered service in 1988, is the best-selling aircraft in the world. In September it superseded the American manufacturer Boeing’s 737 single-aisle aircraft, the first example of which was delivered in 1968.
At the end of September, Airbus had delivered 12,257 units of its A320 (including private versions), compared to 12,254 units of the 737.
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