Around 6,000 Planes Grounded, After Data Corruption Threat from Intense Solar Radiation

The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has initiated the grounding of approximately 6,000 aircraft from its best-selling A320 family, including the A318, A319, A320, and A321 models, after identifying that intense solar radiation could potentially corrupt data in the onboard flight control computers responsible for calculating the plane's elevation. 

This issue, discovered following an October incident where a JetBlue Airways flight suddenly lost altitude, led the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to issue an emergency airworthiness directive, requiring the problem to be fixed before the planes can carry passengers again, although "ferry flights" to maintenance facilities are permitted. 

The majority of the affected aircraft, estimated at around 5,100, require only a relatively simple software update, typically taking about three hours, with many airlines like Easyjet, American Airlines, and Indian carriers IndiGo and Air India working to complete these quick fixes over the busy Thanksgiving weekend. However, the remaining 900 older aircraft will necessitate the more complex and time-consuming physical replacement of their onboard computers, an operation whose duration is dependent on the availability of replacement parts, and Airbus has apologized for the resulting operational disruptions to passengers and customers globally.