Airbus A320 flights affected by solar radiation glitch

Millions of airline passengers booked to fly on the Airbus A320 family of aircraft could find their flights disrupted while urgent modifications are made to a piece of equipment susceptible to “intense solar radiation”. A total of 6,500 of the twin-jets are believed to be affected.

- SIMON CALDER TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT

The Civil Aviation Authority warned those aircraft will have to have software modified “or remain on the ground from tomorrow onwards until the software has been changed”.

In most cases the update is expected to take two hours. But with tight scheduling for many aircraft, disruption is likely. Britain's biggest budget airline, easyJet, as well as Wizz Air, warned some flights over the weekend may be affected.

Air France has cancelled 40 flights that were scheduled to be operated by Airbus A320 family jets to and from Paris CDG this morning and early afternoon. They include a morning flight to Birmingham and back.

Airbus issued a dramatic announcement yesterday evening saying: “Intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.

“Airbus has consequently identified a significant number of A320 family aircraft currently in-service which may be impacted.”

The equipment in question is the elevator aileron computer (Elac). It controls the elevators that change the pitch of the aircraft, and the ailerons that enable the plane to turn. The fear is that solar radiation acting on the system corrupt data - which may trigger a movement that “may result in exceeding the aircraft’s structural capability”.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) has issued an “emergency airworthiness directive”, effective from 11.59pm today 29 November, instructing operators of the affected aircraft to take action.

Easa’s directive says: “An Airbus A320 aeroplane recently experienced an uncommanded and limited pitch down event. The autopilot remained engaged throughout the event, with a brief and limited loss of altitude.”