Software issue grounds 6,000 jets in one of the biggest recalls ever

Airbus announced an immediate recall affecting 6,000 aircraft from its A320 family, marking one of the largest corrective actions in the company’s 55-year history.

The directive requires airlines worldwide to roll back their flight-control software after investigators linked solar flares to corrupted flight-control data.

The A320, which recently surpassed the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered jet, is widely used across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. At the time the bulletin was issued to more than 350 operators, roughly 3,000 A320-family aircraft were in the air.

The required fix is a rollback to an earlier version of ELAC flight-control software, which governs pitch control through the aircraft’s digital fly-by-wire system. Thales manufactures the related hardware but said the affected functionality lies in software outside its scope. While the repair itself takes roughly two hours, airlines must ground each aircraft until the update is applied.

Industry sources noted that more than 1,000 jets may also require hardware replacement, increasing downtime for some fleets.

Multiple carriers have already reported operational impacts. Some airlines reported delays as a large portion of their fleets needed adjustments, while others had to cancel many planned flights in one of the busiest weekends of the year, especially in North America.

The recall was triggered by an incident involving a JetBlue flight on October 30, when a corrupted flight-control signal caused a sudden altitude drop, injuring passengers and forcing an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida. The FAA launched an investigation, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an emergency directive mandating immediate compliance.

Despite crowded maintenance schedules, labor shortages, and ongoing backlogs from unrelated engine inspections, industry analysts expect many airlines to complete the software rollback during overnight windows or between scheduled flights. However, coordinating thousands of updates during peak demand remains a significant challenge for the global aviation network.