Aviation commentator Irene King. Photo / Michael Craig
King said many flight issues had an obvious explanation but the Cancun-Newark flight did not fall into that category.
”Anything that’s an uncontrolled command to the aircraft – it is something that’s going to immediately grab your attention.
“It’s like your computer shutting down and you haven’t done anything.”
King says she understands the aircraft plunged “quite severely” and that people were injured.
“Obviously they’ve been doing an intensive investigation and they’ve worked out that there was a software glitch. I guess from that perspective that’s why this is garnering a lot of interest – plus of course the sheer volume of the disruption.”
Today, Airbus announced a software update was required for A320 aircraft due to the discovery of a vulnerability to “intense solar radiation” – referring to a solar flare incident believed to have impacted the US flight.
The software update would take several hours in most cases, but for other planes the work would be more involved, AP reported.
About 6000 planes were thought to be affected globally, with Airbus saying in its statement that it was aware its precautionary notice would “lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers”.
Hundreds of passengers have been caught up in significant delays across New Zealand, some by 24 hours. Air New Zealand has warned further delays are likely.
An Air New Zealand Airbus. Photo / 123RF
King believes the global impact will take its toll on Airbus’ reputation.
“I wouldn’t put it in the black swan category, but my God this swan has certainly turned grey,” said King.
King believes Airbus will have its best aviation engineers working on the fix.
“They have to be very clear about … do they have the problem quantified, identified, and the fix absolutely nailed down?
“Is it just a bug or is it an infection, you know? Those are the things that start to go through the minds of airline executives.”
The respected aviation commentator says she is reminded of the Y2K panic of 25 years ago.
“And you’re thinking, well, how the hell do they not know about this?
“But it seems like there has been quite a lot of chatter around the impact of all of these solar flares potentially on aviation. And now we’re starting to see the potential becoming an actual.”
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says it is still safe to fly despite the chaos that has been caused by the Airbus warning. The CAA describes the systems maintenance as “a precautionary software update” and says it does not present an immediate safety risk to flights.