Airbus hit by historic recall after solar radiation

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00:00Okay, it's official. 2025 is cooked. Airbus just got forced into one of the biggest aircraft

00:09recalls in aviation history. And the reason is the sun. This all started after a JetBlue

00:15flight in October suddenly dipped midair. This forced an emergency landing in Florida,

00:20sending at least 15 people to the hospital. Investigators found that intense solar radiation

00:26interfered with the plane's flight control computer. Apparently, we're in solar cycle 25,

00:32when the sun transitions from a quiet to an active and stormy state. We humans, we're gonna be fine.

00:38It's our technology that's fried. In 2025, the sun has fired off an unusually high number of

00:44X-class solar flares, which can interfere with our satellites and communication signals.

00:49In this case, Airbus needed to roll out a software update to about 6,000 of its A320 aircraft

00:56vehicles, including 900 older models that also needed hardware replacements.

01:01Now, it's not the end of the world, but the timing couldn't be worse.

01:05It's the peak holiday travel period, and the U.S. just can't catch a break. They're coming fresh off

01:10a government shutdown and has a shortage of air traffic controllers. Now, their airlines are

01:15expecting widespread delays and cancellations, particularly on routes to South America, Europe,

01:21India, and New Zealand. This also doesn't help the fact that the global civil aviation industry

01:26has a major shortage of aircraft, made even worse by the safety and labor issues at Airbus's biggest

01:32competitor, Boeing. But for now, things are looking up. Airbus said only 100 or so aircraft are still

01:39awaiting the modification before they can return to service.