| ▲ | Airbus A320 – intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical for flight(airbus.com) |
| 195 points by pyrophoenix 8 hours ago | 33 comments |
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| ▲ | addaon 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I’d really, really like to know what microcontroller family this was found on. Assuming that this is a safety processor (lockstep, ECC, etc) it suggests that ECC was insufficient for the level of bit flips they’re seeing — and if the concern is data corruption, not unintended restart, it means it’s enough flips in one word to be undetectable. The environment they’re operating in isn’t that different from everyone else, so unless they ate some margin elsewhere (bad voltage corner or something), this can definitely be relevant to others. Also would be interesting to know if it’s NVM or SRAM that’s effected. |
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| ▲ | 65a 15 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| There's a great postmortem here about what might have been a similar SEU (single event upset--bitflip) here: https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/3532398/ao... |
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| ▲ | joelthelion 29 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Do they really need to ground the entire fleet for that? One incident for ten thousand planes in the air for years. I'd think that giving airlines two months to fix it would be sufficient. |
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| ▲ | qaq 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Has BoFesc vibes
"It's friday, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The phone rings. Shit! I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "SOLAR FLARES" stares out at me. I'd better read up on that..." |
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| ▲ | jfoster 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I've noticed that some carriers seem to be suggesting that there might be no impact to flights, but isn't this an immediate grounding for each aircraft until the update is made? How is it possible that this wouldn't impact upon flight schedules? |
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| ▲ | icegreentea2 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The grounding is for 6000 of 11000 A320 series. I believe it's some combination of software and hardware configuration that is at risk. | |
| ▲ | arrel 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | N of 1, but I’m stuck in phoenix overnight because our flight was delayed an hour and a half by airbus maintenance and we missed our connection. |
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| ▲ | owenthejumper 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| A friend works at Jetblue. They are scrambling hard to do the updates. |
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| ▲ | viiralvx 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I was traveling during this entire ordeal. My flight got delayed by 7 hours. Insane day, just now boarding my flight. American Airlines was in shambles today. |
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| ▲ | minitoar an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| We flew too close to the sun |
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| ▲ | ChrisArchitect 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46082296 |
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| ▲ | op00to 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Solar radiation like solar wind, or sunlight? They don’t say. |
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| ▲ | mr_toad 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | “Analysis of a recent event” I presume they mean a Coronal Mass Ejection. | | |
| ▲ | bparsons 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | There was a very large CME ten days ago. The NOAA scale had predicted a high likelihood of disruptions, and had specifically suggested that spacecraft and high altitude aircraft could be impacted. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation https://kauai.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/CMEscoreboard/prediction/de... | | | |
| ▲ | fwip 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I feel like the event was something that happened to a plane. That said, I wouldn't think sunlight would be penetrating to the chips running the plane. | | |
| ▲ | dtagames 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Gamma rays penetrate everything and have definitely been known to disrupt computer circuits. | | |
| ▲ | fwip 7 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yes, which is why the solar flare scenario makes more sense. |
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| ▲ | awesome_dude 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > The grounding of Airbus A320neo aircraft around the world can be traced back to an incident on a JetBlue flight operating a Cancun to New Jersey service on 30 October. > At least 15 passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after a sudden drop in altitude on the flight from Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, US aviation officials said at the time. > The Thursday flight from Cancun was headed to Newark, New Jersey, when the altitude dropped, leading to the diversion to Tampa International Airport, the US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. > Pilots reported “a flight control issue” and described injuries including a possible “laceration in the head,” according to air traffic audio recorded by LiveATC.net. > Medical personnel met the passengers and crew on the ground at the airport. Between 15 and 20 people were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, said Vivian Shedd, a spokesperson for Tampa Fire Rescue. > Pablo Rojas, a Miami-based attorney who specialises in aviation law, said a “flight control issue” indicated that the aircraft wasn't responding to the pilots. https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360903363/what-happened-fligh... | | |
| ▲ | lostlogin 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > At least 15 passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after a sudden drop in altitude on the flight from Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida, US aviation officials said at the time. I’m surprised passengers are allowed to unbuckle for so much of each flight. You can get injured while buckled it, but that seems less common. | | |
| ▲ | MaxfordAndSons 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | The flight attendants/safety card will tell you to stay buckled whenever seated, even if the seat belt sign is off, but many (most?) people will ignore that guidance and stay unbuckled for as long as they are technically allowed. Only aviation professionals or recovering flight phobics like me who have watched every episode of Air Crash Investigation will take proactive safety measure of their own accord. To normies it's all just a pointless hassle. | | |
| ▲ | sailfast 21 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I stay buckled and I’m just a “normie” not afraid of flying that understands turbulence doesn’t always happen in a bell curve with some notice. Not sure if that makes you feel any better? :) |
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| ▲ | kappi 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Following the Airbus A320 emergency airworthiness action, everyone will be talking about the ELAC (Elevator Aileron Computer) manufactured by Thales, which caused a sudden pitch-down without pilot input on JetBlue 1230 back in October. So here’s everything you need to know about ELAC. The ELAC System in the Airbus A320: The Brains Behind Pitch and Roll Control
https://x.com/Turbinetraveler/status/1994498724513345637 |
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| ▲ | rvz 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Better not be "vibe-coded". |
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| ▲ | jMyles 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| This is one of the rare cases where, IMO, it makes sense to use a modified title as you've done here. |
