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Airbus has announced the recall of approximately 6,500 A320 aircraft due to potential failures in the ELAC control system caused by powerful solar flares. The recall followed a sudden loss of altitude during a flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, which resulted in an emergency landing and 15 injuries to passengers.
According to Reuters , the decision to recall the aircraft was made following an investigation into the JetBlue A320 crash. The investigation determined that the crash was caused by the ELAC subsystem’s incorrect response to intense solar flares.
As a result, the system misinterpreted the movements of the control column . The manufacturer recommended rolling back the L104 software update to the previous version or replacing the processing module .
More than 6,000 A320 aircraft are affected by the recall. Lufthansa, IndiGo, easyJet, JetBlue, American Airlines, and Air France were forced to ground significant portions of their fleets, causing widespread delays and cancellations over the weekend. Air France alone canceled 35 flights on Saturday.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, easyJet, JetBlue and American Airlines have independently rolled back the problematic update – the operation took just a few hours, avoiding any disruption to their schedules .
Only older aircraft require computer module replacement . According to an RBC industry source , it appears that Russian aircraft are immune to this problem.
Why? The “immunity” of Russian A320s is due to the fact that their software has not been updated since 2022 due to sanctions. The problematic L104 update was only released in 2024.
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