(Dec 1): Airbus SE said the vast majority of the about 6,000 A320-family aircraft impacted by a software glitch have received the necessary modification over the weekend, helping the European planemaker sidestep a wider disruption in what has become the company’s largest recall to date.
Fewer than 100 aircraft still need to get a software fix before they can return to service, Airbus said in a statement on Monday. The company first revealed late on Friday that an incident about a month ago had shown the need for an urgent system update on its most widely-flown jet, to ensure safe use of flight inputs.
The surprise announcement on Friday, which was followed by an emergency dispatch by regulators demanding action before the aircraft’s next regular flight, caught airlines and the flying public off guard. The actual fix, a revision to a previous version of the software that helps maintain functioning flight controls, turned out to be a fairly swift move for most carriers, with only a small amout requiring more complex attention.
“Airbus apologises for any challenges and delays caused to passengers and airlines by this event,” the company said.
The software in question helps control the plane’s elevator-aileron computers — known as ELAC 2 — which Airbus found to have malfunctioned on a flight on Oct 30, involving a Jetblue Airways Corp airliner. The planemaker said the cause was “intense solar radiation”, an occurrence that can make an electronic system behave in unexpected ways.
The recall underscores the industry’s intense focus on safety and precaution, and is a reminder how important functioning software is today to help fly complex aircraft like the A320, the manufacturer’s by far most popular plane.
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Boeing Co learned the hard way a few years ago, just how catastrophic malfunctioning onboard systems can be. Two 737 Max aircraft, the Airbus A320’s competing model, crashed in rapid succession in late 2018 and early 2019.
A stabilising system known as MCAS was later found to have delivered the wrong inputs during flight, confusing the pilots and ultimately leading to disasters that killed everyone on board the two jets.
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