Airbus rush to update A320 software after plane's sudden altitude drop

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00:00It's a best-selling aircraft used by commercial airlines across the world.

00:05Airbus has ordered immediate repairs to 6,000 of its A320s, more than half of its global

00:10fleet, due to a flight control software issue.

00:14For safety reasons, the planes cannot fly until repaired.

00:18The flight system in question sends commands from the pilot's side stick to elevators

00:22at the rear.

00:23It's manufactured by the French company TELIS, which insists it's not responsible for the

00:28problem.

00:30The incident that prompted the recall involved a flight from Cancun to Newark on the 30th

00:34of October.

00:36Several passengers were hurt after a sharp loss of altitude, forcing the pilots to make an

00:40emergency landing in Florida.

00:43After analysis, Airbus claims that intense solar radiation may have been the culprit.

00:48We need to talk about solar storms, which are particles emitted by explosions on the sun's

00:54surface.

00:55They project a cloud of particles and can reach Earth in about 20 hours.

00:59But if this happens with significant intensity, it can disrupt computers and therefore the

01:04flight control links to the computer give you bad information.

01:10Repairs can be completed within a few hours for each plane, but disruptions will vary in

01:14length depending on the company.

01:17We apologize for any inconvenience and will work closely with operators while maintaining

01:22safety as our top priority.

01:26On Friday, Air France announced it was cancelling 35 flights, 5% of the airline's daily total.

01:33Meanwhile American Airlines said 209 of its planes were affected and that it expects some delays.

01:40Colombian carrier Abianca said the recall concerned more than 70% of its fleet.

01:46It said it would halt ticket sales for travel dates through the 8th of December.

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