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Jetstar flights across the country are anticipated to face delays due to a significant recall of Airbus planes, impacting air travel on a global scale.
Airbus has announced that a large portion of its popular A320 aircraft are being withdrawn from service, a decision that industry insiders predict will disrupt approximately half of the worldwide fleet.
Jetstar informed 9News that although several flights managed to take off this morning, some aircraft are now being grounded, which is expected to affect today’s flight schedule.
Air New Zealand operations will also experience disruptions as a result.
While Jetstar remains uncertain about the duration of these delays, they plan to release an update later today.
“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,” Airbus said in a statement.
The recall has affected flights globally.
“Airbus has put out a directive that the aircraft, the A320 aircraft, of which there are more than 10,000 around the world, have to have a software update to correct for an error in data when there’s intense solar radiation,” pilot and aviation expert Richard de Crespigny said.
“So it’s not suggesting that there’s something wrong with the actual flight controls themselves.”
“The problem is that you have to update all the aircraft in your fleet.”
“If you’ve only got a couple of engineers that have turned up for work, you’d need them to pull in many more.”
“You’ve got to wait for the aircraft to land.”
“Maybe the aircraft has been in a hangar overnight. It’s just a problem of scheduling all the aircraft to be updated quickly, that’s all.”