Caused uncommanded pitch down, could exceed structural integrity of aircraft. There are redundant units - unknown why this can happen given redundancy.
Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls.
This is different from the core claim that the incident was caused by radiation. What are the prior probabilities that the system was exposed to "intense radiation"? Vs some other mundane cause such as a faulty wire or mechanical issues? And what is the evidence supporting the former hypothesis?
This is highly unusual, so there may be something more to it than only speculation about radiation. The emergency AD says:
> Before next flight after the effective date of this AD, replace or modify each affected ELAC with a serviceable ELAC in accordance with the instructions of the AOT.
>
> A ferry flight (up to 3 Flight Cycles, non-ETOPS, no passengers) is permitted to position the aeroplane to a location where the replacement or modification can be accomplished.
That's a very limiting AD. The "before the next flight" part is unusual, ADs often have a limit to the next inspection or X flight hours or similar, not immediately.
I can understand why this would be priority for Airbus even without the incident of a flight losing altitude - recently read that a major philosophical difference between Airbus and Boeing is that Airbus prioritises the safety of the Aircraft through controls (hardware and software) where as Boeing believes a human should always be the final decision maker and be able to over ride any control. An Airbus rarely allows a pilot to over ride any warning or allow the pilot to exceed the specifications of the aircraft, whereas a Boeing will warn the pilot about an unsafe action but will allow the pilot to over ride it. It will be interesting to see how things change when AI tech creeps into Aviation tech.
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[ 0.31 ms ] story [ 25.9 ms ] threadhttps://ad.easa.europa.eu/blob/EASA_AD_2025_0268_E.pdf/EAD_2...
This was the incident that triggered the investigation:
https://avherald.com/h?article=52f1ffc3&opt=0
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/30/us/jetblue-flight-emergen...
List of Airbus A320 family operators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbus_A320_family_ope...
Apparently it has happened to an Airbus once before.
("Apply this very expensive special tape from (e.g.) 3M here and here.")
From https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-11-ai...:
This is different from the core claim that the incident was caused by radiation. What are the prior probabilities that the system was exposed to "intense radiation"? Vs some other mundane cause such as a faulty wire or mechanical issues? And what is the evidence supporting the former hypothesis?> Before next flight after the effective date of this AD, replace or modify each affected ELAC with a serviceable ELAC in accordance with the instructions of the AOT. > > A ferry flight (up to 3 Flight Cycles, non-ETOPS, no passengers) is permitted to position the aeroplane to a location where the replacement or modification can be accomplished.
That's a very limiting AD. The "before the next flight" part is unusual, ADs often have a limit to the next inspection or X flight hours or similar, not immediately.