Airbus announced an emergency recall of 6,000 A320‑family aircraft on November 28, 2025, after a JetBlue A320 lost altitude on October 30 due to a malfunction in the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC) system. The malfunction was traced to intense solar radiation that corrupted data in the flight‑control computer, a rare but documented vulnerability in fly‑by‑wire aircraft.
The recall requires operators to revert to an earlier software version and, for a subset of older aircraft, to install a hardware modification. European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued directives that became effective on November 29, 2025, mandating the software rollback and hardware changes before any affected aircraft can resume passenger service.
JetBlue, which operates 130 A320‑family aircraft—129 A320s and 125 A320‑200s—has grounded its entire fleet. The airline must schedule maintenance, coordinate with Airbus, and manage flight cancellations during the peak Thanksgiving travel period. The grounding is expected to generate significant revenue loss and operational strain for JetBlue, as the airline’s schedule is heavily reliant on the A320 family for domestic and short‑haul routes.
The recall has a global reach, affecting airlines across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Maintenance shops are already stretched by other engine and airframe groundings, so the additional 6,000 aircraft will further strain capacity and lead to widespread flight cancellations and delays. The timing of the recall during a busy travel season amplifies the disruption.
The incident and recall have heightened safety scrutiny for JetBlue and all A320 operators. Regulators are reviewing the ELAC software’s susceptibility to solar radiation, and airlines are reassessing their maintenance and flight‑control system resilience. For Airbus, the recall is one of the largest in its history and underscores the risks of software dependency in modern aircraft, potentially prompting further investment in software validation and redundancy.
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