A global wave of flight disruptions begun after Airbus warned that more than 6,000 A320-family jets need urgent software updates, following an investigation into an October JetBlue incident where intense solar radiation corrupted a flight-control computer and caused a sudden altitude drop.
Regulators say solar storms — particularly coronal mass ejections — can interfere with aircraft electronics at high altitude, prompting the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to order fixes before planes can carry passengers again.
