LONDON (AP) — Airbus said that most of its fleet of 6,000 A320 passenger jets have received an update to fix a software glitch that could have affected flight controls.
Travelers had faced minor disruptions heading into the weekend as airlines around the world scrambled to push the software updates out to the widely used commercial jetliner. Airbus warned of the problem Friday with U.S. millions of passengers in transit for the Thanksgiving holiday, the busiest travel time in the United States.
The European planemaker said in an update Monday that the “vast majority” of the short-haul passenger jets in service “have now received the necessary modifications.”
“We are working with our airline customers to support the modification of less than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service,” Toulouse, France-based Airbus said.
“Airbus apologises for any challenges and delays caused to passengers and airlines by this event,” it said.
Airbus said it discovered that “intense solar radiation” could corrupt data that’s critical to the functioning of flight controls.
The problem is suspected of contributing to a sudden drop in altitude of a JetBlue planefrom Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey on Oct. 30, that injured at least 15 passengers, some of them transported to hospitals for medical care.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency required airlines to address the issue with the software update. More than 500 U.S.-registered aircraft were impacted, including jets flown by American Airlines and Delta.
Japan’s All Nippon Airways, Air India and Germany’s Lufthansa were also affected. The Airbus A320 family of single-aisle aircraft is the primary competitor to Boeing’s 737.
