Expert comment: Airbus A320 recall and solar radiation

"The malfunction of a computer on the A320 JetBlue (JBLU.O) flight from Cancun, Mexico, to New Jersey, on 30th October, in which several passengers were hurt following a sharp loss of altitude, is uncannily similar to an event in 2008 on Qantas (ref 1) that also led to many severe injuries and finished the career of the pilot who heroically saved the plane (Ref 2).

"We need to know more about the event but research here at the University of Surrey over some decades has shown that solar radiation is quite capable of causing malfunctions in airborne electronics, and we have recently launched a model that enables engineers to readily calculate the effects on computers and electronics operating at altitude – the model, MAIRE, is already under trial at the UK Met Office and should ultimately improve the information available to the aviation sector.,

"On the other hand, it's somewhat puzzling that Airbus refer to 'intense' solar radiation: on 30th October the aircraft concerned would only have experienced normal radiation levels for that altitude – there was no solar event of concern and no increase above normal. That said, there was a big radiation increase two weeks later, on 11th November 2025, when a 'space weather' event known as a ground level enhancement (GLE) took place – the largest for 20 years. Our model indicates that radiation levels reached almost ten times normal for a short period at cruising altitudes, and measurements using rapid reaction balloons launched by the UK Met Office during the event are being studied – we certainly saw substantial increases in some regions.,

"Such data enables us to calibrate our model and estimate what might occur in more severe events – in 1956, for example, an event 100 times more intense occurred, and it's part of our research to estimate what the effects might be. We have contributed to avionics standards for radiation effects over two decades but space weather enhancements are not adequately addressed at present."

Professor Keith Ryden

Professor Clive Dyer

References

• Ref 1: In-flight upset 154 km west of Learmonth, WA, 7 October 2008, VH-QPA, Airbus A330-303, ATSB Transport Safety Report, Aviation Occurrence Investigation AO-2008-070 Final.
• Ref 2: "No Man's Land: The Untold Story of Automation on QF72", Kevin Sullivan, HarperCollins, 2019.