EASA emergency airworthiness directive for A319/320/321 fleet 28Nov 2025. Immediate Grounding for many

[Quickstatus]

EASA has issued an EAD on 28 November 2025 for the global fleet of A319/320/321 after an uncommanded pitch down in a JetBlue A320 on 30 October 2520

This will affect operators such as JQ.

Here is the Airbus statement.

Effectively all affected aircraft are immediately grounded, though some airlines started to make the fix before the EASA EAD

Avherald report on the Incident

EAD:

 

[RooFlyer]

The AFR reports , on-line:

Airbus cautioned that more than half of its active A320 jetliner family fleet will need a software fix after a recent incident involving a JetBlue Airways airliner revealed that “intense solar radiation” could corrupt data that helps maintain functioning flight controls.

Airbus:

Airbus update on A320 Family precautionary fleet action

Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical. Read more.

www.airbus.com

 

[Saab34]

Jetstar have said engineers need the aircraft for 1-2 hours.

 

[Quickstatus]

The solutions are to roll back the software to an earlier iteration or replace the ELAC computer. But if the spare hardware is also affected, it can't be used.

 

[Pushka]

Jetstar have said engineers need the aircraft for 1-2 hours.

Apparently the upgrade doesn't take long but the delays could be weeks.

 

[jrfsp]

Guessing this will affect QF (network) out of PER too, they have close to 30 A319/20s now

 

[Quickstatus]

Network aviation does not appear to have commented though QF has said none of its fleet are affected

The number of aircraft globally affected are approximately 6000 - 50% of the global fleet?

The fix shouldn't take long though if the the software can be rolled back on the affected computer. I assume a flight test is also required?

 

[Flyerwin]

Wow

Explains this: https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...s/news-story/f06d26d77f136d479b26e68ecc14fef0

Right now on a QF plane to Hobart. Original flight was a JQ one so maybe I dodged a bullet.

 

[flyingfan]

Wonder if it can be resolved before the imminent holiday rush, otherwise it could look chaotic

 

[kelvedon]

From the BBC

Australian airline Jetstar says some of its flights are unable to departpublished at 09:07
09:07​

We've just seen an update from low-cost Australian airline Jetstar, which says some of its Airbus-operated flights are unable to depart at the moment.

"We’re working through the impacts on our fleet and to our customers. We'll have more information shortly," it says.

There is no impact to airline giant Qantas at this stage.

For context: Jetstar is Qantas's low-cost airline.

Flight disruption warning as Airbus requests modifications to 6,000 planes

The European aerospace giant said it had found that intense radiation from the Sun could corrupt data crucial to flight controls.

www.bbc.com

 

[MEL_Traveller]

While the first flight of the the day SYD-MEL got away, the next four have been cancelled. That’s around 800-900 displaced pax just there

 

[Quickstatus]

There is no impact to airline giant Qantas at this stage.

Dunno why BBC think QF an airline giant when AA is has the worlds largest A320 fleet with over 400 of the 319/320/321

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Interesting… Air New Zealand is saying the directive doesn’t come into effect until 30 November (which does appear consistent with the document issued above), but they’re also saying:

It is important for customers to know that this is a precautionary software update and does not present an immediate safety risk to our flights.​

I’m not sure that’s true??

Travel alerts

Be kept up to date with current travel alerts that are in effect.

www.airnewzealand.com.au

 

[Coathanger]

How does the “intense solar radiation” impact software? There’s also the potential that hardware needs to be replaced, which is going to cause problems at Christmas.

 

[Quickstatus]

I’m not sure that’s true??

Yes, how can a known problem be a problem only at 23:59 UTC (12:59 NZ time) and not at 12:58 NZ time?

 

[Quickstatus]

How does the “intense solar radiation” impact software?

By causing a memory bit to flip from 0 to 1 or visa versa (SEU - single event upset)
Usually hardware/software error correction protects against this but sometimes the code may not be written in a way that gives such resiliency

Space travel is particularly affected. Both Voyager 1 and 2 have been affected by Bit flips in their travels

 

[jb747]

Network aviation does not appear to have commented though QF has said none of its fleet are affected.

Interesting, if true.

The fix shouldn't take long though if the the software can be rolled back on the affected computer.

I’m just talking to an Airbus engineer (in Germany) to get a bit more detail about exactly what happens. It seems that the box may have to be removed for the the data upload to take place. The box change is simple and quick. But the limitation will probably be the availability of the data loaders required to do the work. How wide spread are they? Do all airlines even have them?

I assume a flight test is also required?

No. There will be a sequence of ground self tests, but that should be it. Flight tests are quite rare, and only follow major disassembly. This is the sort of box that is replaced in line maintenance.

 

[jb747]

How does the “intense solar radiation” impact software? There’s also the potential that hardware needs to be replaced, which is going to cause problems at Christmas.

By causing a memory bit to flip from 0 to 1 or visa versa (SEU - single event upset)
Usually hardware/software error correction protects against this but sometimes the code may not be written in a way that gives such resiliency

Computer….flying normally, flying normally, flying normally, [radiation arrives], stalled, stalled, “full forward stick to unstall”, oops.

QF 72 2008.