Washington, D.C. – November 30, 2025 – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued an immediate Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) targeting hundreds of Airbus A319, A320, and A321 aircraft operated by U.S. carriers. The directive, announced late Saturday, requires airlines to replace or modify the software governing the aircraft’s Elevator Aileron Computers (ELACs) — critical systems responsible for controlling pitch and roll — before any further passenger flights. This precautionary action affects approximately 545 aircraft in the U.S. alone and mirrors a parallel emergency order from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The measure stems from concerns over temporary data corruption triggered by intense solar radiation.
The FAA emphasized the directive’s immediacy: “The EAD requires replacing or modifying the software that controls the airplanes’ elevator ailerons” and is “effective immediately.” Operators must complete all modifications by early Sunday local time — approximately midnight Eastern Standard Time on November 30. The order also explicitly prohibits installing any affected ELAC software versions on compliant aircraft in the future.
The vulnerability lies in the ELAC B L104 software version, introduced in a recent update intended to improve flight control efficiency. Airbus’s investigation revealed that under extreme conditions — specifically bursts of intense solar radiation from coronal mass ejections — the software could experience temporary data corruption. Such events are more frequent during the current solar maximum cycle, which is peaking in 2025. In rare cases, this corruption could trigger uncommanded elevator movements, potentially pushing the aircraft beyond structural limits.
Airbus first alerted global operators on November 28 through an Alert Operators Transmission (AOT), warning that up to 6,000 A320 Family aircraft — roughly half of the worldwide in-service fleet of about 11,300 units — may be affected. The manufacturer described the issue as one that “may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls” and stressed that safety remains its overriding priority. For most aircraft (approximately 85%), the fix is a straightforward software rollback to a previous, proven version that takes 2–3 hours. A smaller subset requires physical replacement of the ELAC hardware, extending downtime.
The catalyst for this global response was a serious incident on October 30, 2025, involving JetBlue Flight 1230, an Airbus A320 flying from Cancún, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey. About one hour into the flight over the Gulf of Mexico, the aircraft experienced an uncommanded pitch-down event, dropping roughly 100 feet in seven seconds. The sudden descent injured at least 15 passengers and crew members with non-life-threatening cuts, bruises, and contusions. The pilots, with autopilot still engaged, quickly regained control and diverted safely to Tampa, Florida. Subsequent analysis linked the event to a solar particle strike that momentarily corrupted ELAC data.
EASA issued its Emergency Airworthiness Directive on November 29, requiring operators to confirm “serviceable” ELACs before further flights. The FAA followed suit less than 24 hours later. Ferry flights without passengers are permitted to reposition aircraft to maintenance bases.
In the United States, major operators moved swiftly to comply. American Airlines completed updates on nearly all of its 209 affected aircraft by Saturday evening, with the remainder finished Sunday morning. Frontier Airlines updated 128 of its 144 aircraft overnight. Delta Air Lines reported only a small portion of its fleet required attention and anticipated minimal disruption. JetBlue, the operator of the October incident, began repairs across its predominantly A320/A321 fleet and assured customers it would notify them of any schedule changes.
Internationally, carriers such as IndiGo (India), Air India, and Wizz Air (Europe) also completed the majority of fixes overnight or within hours, allowing near-normal operations to resume by Saturday and Sunday.
Despite the tight deadline and the post-Thanksgiving travel surge, widespread chaos was largely avoided. Some minor delays and cancellations occurred, particularly at hubs like London Gatwick and Newark, but most airlines absorbed the impact through proactive overnight maintenance and spare aircraft.
The episode highlights a rare intersection of space weather and aviation technology. Fly-by-wire systems like those on the A320 rely on multiple layers of redundancy, which is why the JetBlue crew was able to recover control almost instantly. Solar particle events capable of affecting avionics are extremely uncommon at commercial cruising altitudes, but the ongoing solar maximum has increased their frequency.
Airbus has apologized for the inconvenience to passengers and airlines while committing to work closely with operators and regulators. Ongoing investigations by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) continue to examine flight data from the JetBlue incident.
For travelers, the key takeaway is reassurance: aviation regulators and manufacturers identified a potential risk, acted decisively within days, and implemented fixes before any further incidents occurred. The global A320 fleet — the most widely flown narrowbody family in history — is now returning to full service with enhanced protection against an extraordinarily rare environmental threat.
