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Airbus Completes A320 Software Rollback as Most of 6,000 Jets Return to Service

Regulators ordered the weekend fix after an October JetBlue incident, leaving fewer than 100 aircraft awaiting flight‑control computer replacements.

Overview

  • Airbus said by Monday morning the vast majority of affected A320‑family jets had been reverted to a prior software version, a process that typically took two to three hours per aircraft.
  • An emergency directive required operators to ground aircraft until modified, leading to brief sidelining across fleets as airlines performed overnight updates to restore service.
  • The fleetwide action followed a 30 October JetBlue A320 event involving an uncommanded loss of altitude that injured passengers and led authorities to require remediation before the next flight.
  • Airbus pointed to solar‑induced particle streams as a possible factor that can corrupt data in ELAC flight‑control computers supplied by Thales, while investigations continue.
  • Operational impact was limited overall, though ANA canceled 95 flights affecting 13,500 travelers and JetBlue cut dozens of services, as Airbus shares fell sharply and the company disclosed a separate, limited quality issue with some A320 metal fuselage parts in production.