Posted in Marketing

Airbus Recall Globally: British Solar Astrophysicist Explains How Solar Storm Disrupts Flights & Critical Devices

Author Admin Estimated read time 7 min read
Airbus Recall Globally: British Solar Astrophysicist Explains How Solar Storm Disrupts Flights & Critical Devices



Airbus has grounded over 6000 A320 planes, some of which make up the majority of European airlines, besides Asian ones like IndiGo and Air India. This comes in the wake of an investigation on an airbus JetBlue Airways en route to the USA from Mexico that suddenly lost altitude in October; the probe revealed critical corruption in computer data that controls the flight due to solar radiation. The craft made an emergency landing in Florida after the incident in which at least 15 flyers suffered injuries. Amid the ensuing chao, Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO in his LinkedIn statement remarked,

The fix required on some #A320 aircraft has been causing significant logistical challenges and delays since yesterday. I want to sincerely apologize to our airline customers and passengers who are impacted now. But we consider that nothing is more important than safety when people fly on one of our Airbus Aircraft – like millions do every day. Our teams are working around the clock to support our operators and ensure these updates are deployed as swiftly as possible to get planes back in the sky and resume normal operations, with the safety assurance you expect from #Airbus.

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in the US also issued an advisory in this regard.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) for certain Airbus A319 and A320/321 airplanes. The EAD requires replacing or modifying the software that controls the airplanes’ elevator ailerons. The EAD is effective immediately. Operators must perform the work before the airplane flies again by 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30. The EAD also prohibits installing the affected software on any aircraft. The FAA’s action mirrors an EAD from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, which certifies Airbus airplanes.

IndiGo and Air India, in their communication over social media, allayed the flyers’ concern about the safety of Airbus and informed that they are working round the clock to ensure zero flight cancellation amid safety update.

IndiGo wrote

Our diligent and hardworking engineering teams have already completed the mandatory Airbus safety update on 160 out of 200 AIB mandated A320-family aircraft, ensuring our fleet remains ready, reliable, and safe for your travels.

While Air India stated,

At Air India, safety is top priority. Following EASA and Airbus directives for a mandatory software and hardware realignment on A320 family aircraft worldwide, our engineers have been working round-the-clock to complete the task at the earliest. We have already completed the reset on over 40% of our aircraft that are impacted by this and are confident of covering the entire fleet within the timeline prescribed by EASA.

It added,

Air India can confirm that there have been no cancellations due to this task and there isn’t any major impact on schedule integrity across our network.

However, some of our flights may be slightly delayed or rescheduled. Our colleagues on the ground are there to assist the passengers.

Meanwhile, a British solar astrophysicist, Dr. Ryan French, in his X/Twitter thread, explained how a solar storm can be damaging to critical equipment. He cited the first incident where an Airbus flying from Mexico to the USA saw a sudden drop in altitude, forcing an emergency landing, which was later attributed to corrupt data in a computer used to help control the plane.

Dr. French remarked,

Solar energetic particles are high-energy electrons and protons released by the Sun, primarily during solar flares. These particles travel very close to the speed of light, arriving to Earth just a few minutes after the solar flare is first detected.

Solar energetic particles are an important part of space weather (the influence of the Sun on Earth), but receive significantly less attention than the two other types: solar flares (which cause radio blackouts) and coronal mass ejections (which cause solar/geomagnetic storms)

Flipping computer commands like this can cause many seemingly random effects. Some are harmless and unnoticeable, but some can be serious. The influence on computer systems in this way is called a ‘single event upset’ or ‘bit flip.’

He added,

In 2003, a candidate for a local election in Belgium received 4096 additional votes as a result of a single upset. In 2008, a Qantas Airlines flight suddenly entered a ‘pitch-down’ maneuver at 38000 feet—similar to the story in the recent news, due to solar particles.

Dr French further warned

It’s important to remember that Earth is not isolated in space, but we are living with a star! It is important for us to dedicate resources to improving our understanding of our Sun and to better predict its influences on the technology we rely on.

However, another space weather physicist is not convinced. Dr Tamitha Skov remarks in her X/Twitter post

The problem is the incident they cite as the reason for the required fix, namely the Jet Blue altitude drop on October 30. On that day, space weather was completely quiet. No solar storms, no radiation storms, and no radio blackouts from solar flares either. Was it just a chance GCR secondary or a delayed response to an earlier single event effect in the avionics?

So, is this an unnecessary panic?

See Also: Amid 3I/ATLAS Mystery 2025’s Strongest Solar Flare Causes Radio Blackout: Will X5.1 Send Us Back To Stone Age?

See Also: After Viral ‘Fall Of Icarus’ Portrait Of Sun Featuring Skydiver Buddy, Astrophotographer Shares More Transit Shots

See Also: NASA Quietly Sends Two Spacecraft To Mars — And They’re Going A New Way





Source link

Related