Airbus points emergency warning for six,000 passenger jets as US flight’s ‘uncontrolled drop’ sparks fears of mass groundings

Airbus, one of the biggest aircraft makers globally, has issued a major warning that the company said will likely ground many passenger jets worldwide.

The aeronautics company announced Friday that they have discovered a potential vulnerability in the software on board the Airbus A320 during solar storms, which may hinder pilots from steering or stabilizing the plane while in the air.

Airbus issued an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT), a global warning that urges all airlines using the A320 passenger jet to immediately update their software and hardware to better protect against radiation interference.

Industry safety experts believe the problem originated on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, Mexico to Newark, New Jersey that suddenly suffered an uncontrolled drop in altitude of thousands of feet on October 30.

At least 15 passengers were injured and the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida. 

An investigation, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), found intense solar radiation corrupted critical data in the flight control computers, causing the plane to momentarily lose accurate positioning information and plunge downwards. 

Intense solar radiation in Earth’s atmosphere is often caused by solar flares or coronal mass ejections, which bombard the planet with powerful bursts of charged particles and electromagnetic energy.

These space weather events can sometimes interfere with satellites, GPS, radio signals, and, in this case, even the electronics inside modern aircraft flying at high altitudes.

Daily Mail has reached to both Airbus and JetBlue for comment regarding the incident and how many flights may be grounded by the emergency warning. 

Airbus has issued an emergency alert for the A320 passenger jet (Pictured) which could suffer electronics problems during solar storms

Intense solar activity in Earth’s atmosphere results from solar flares or coronal mass ejections striking the planet with charged particles that can damage electronic (Stock Image)

The A320 recently became the best-selling commercial aircraft in history, surpassing the Boeing 737. Industry experts fear the problem could impact 6,000 jets, according to Reuters. 

‘Airbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,’ the company wrote in a statement Friday. 

The Airbus A320 family includes the A319, A320, and longer A321 models, and more than 12,000 have now been delivered around the world.

It is a narrow-body, twin-engine plane designed mainly for short and medium-haul flights, like New York to Los Angeles or London to Madrid, and is the aircraft flyers are most likely to board on a typical domestic or regional trip.

Depending on how the airline configures the seats, a single A320-family jet can carry anywhere from about 120 to 240 passengers, making it the airline workhorse that flies millions of people every day.

Flyers on social media have already begun to claim that their flights have been affected by the mass A320 groundings.

During the October 30 incident, JetBlue Flight 1230 was cruising at 35,000 feet when the solar radiation caused the uncontrolled drop.

One of the next radio transmissions revealed that the A320 was leveling off at 10,000 feet so the plane could land in Tampa, Florida. 

The pilot also reported that multiple passengers had been injured, likely suffering cuts on their heads as the flight plummeted from 35,000 feet.

JetBlue Flight 1230, an Airbus 320, is believed to be the origin of the emergency warning, which affects all A320s that may be vulnerable to solar radiation (Pictured: A JetBlue A320) 

Several passengers were injured on an October 30 JetBlue flight from Mexico to New Jersey after the plane suffered a control issue, the airline revealed

 ‘JetBlue 1230 descending to 10,000, we’re leveling 297,’ the pilot said in audio obtained from the air traffic control transmission by CBS42.

‘We need medical equipment; we have at least three people injured, maybe a laceration in the head.’