Airlines adopt software fix for Airbus A320 after plane has sudden altitude drop

Airlines around the world canceled and delayed flights heading into the weekend to fix software on a widely used commercial aircraft after an analysis found the computer code may have contributed to a sudden drop in the altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.

Airbus said Friday that an examination of the JetBlue incident revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft.

The FAA joined the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in requiring airlines to address the issue with a new software update. More than 500 U.S.-registered aircraft will be impacted.

The EU safety agency said it may cause “short-term disruption” to flight schedules. The problem was introduced by a software update to the plane's onboard computers, according to the agency.

In Japan, All Nippon Airways, which operates more than 30 planes, canceled 65 domestic flights for Saturday. Additional cancellations on Sunday were possible, it said.

The software change comes as U.S. passengers were beginning to head home from the Thanksgiving holiday, which is the busiest travel time in the country.

American Airlines has about 480 planes from the A320 family, of which 209 are affected. The fix should take about two hours for many aircraft and updates should be completed for the overwhelming majority on Friday, the airline said. A handful will be finished Saturday.

American expected some delays but it said it was focused on limiting cancellations. It said safety would be its overriding priority.

Air India said via the social platform X that its engineers were working on the fix and completed the reset on more 40% of aircraft that need it. There were no cancellations, it said.

Delta said it expected the issue to affect less than 50 of its A321neo aircraft. United said six planes in its fleet are affected and it expects minor disruptions to a few flights. Hawaiian Airlines said it was unaffected.

Mike Stengel, a partner with the aerospace industry management consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, said the fix could be addressed between flights or on overnight plane checks.

“Definitely not ideal for this to be happening on a very ubiquitous aircraft on a busy holiday weekend,” Stengel said from Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Although again the silver lining being that it only should take a few hours to update the software.”

At least 15 JetBlue passengers were injured and taken to the hospital after the Oct. 30 incident on board the flight from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey. The plane was diverted to Tampa, Florida.

Airbus, which is registered in the Netherlands but has its main headquarters in France, is one of the world's biggest airplane manufacturers, alongside Boeing.

The A320 is the primary competitor to Boeing's 737, Stengel said. Airbus updated its engine in the mid-2010s, and planes in this category are called A320neo, he said.

The A320 is the world’s bestselling single-aisle aircraft family, according to Airbus' website.

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu contributed.

The departures display board shows All Nippon Airways' multipule flights cancellation at Haneda airport in Tokyo Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (Takahiko Kanbara/Kyodo News via AP)

Passengers wait in line at All Nippon Airways' counter at Haneda airport in Tokyo Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. A sign, right, reads " Flight cancellation counter." (Takahiko Kanbara/Kyodo News via AP)

FILE - A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320 is silhouetted against the setting moon while approaching for landing in Lisbon, Portugal, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

FILE - A JetBlue logo is displayed on the side of a jet as it taxis at Boston's Logan International Airport, Jan. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s newly selected Constitutional Court will have to work to regain the trust of Guatemalans disillusioned with a justice system that appears to serve the interests of few, experts said Thursday.

Elected every five years by various institutions, Guatemala’s highest court will return four of its 10 magistrates, including alternates. The outgoing court’s decisions in controversial cases were criticized for protecting people with alleged ties to drug trafficking, human rights abuses or corruption.

Experts say the new court appears more balanced, but its decisions will confirm whether that is the case.

“What it has to do is recover the concept of a legal and technical court and not issue decisions tailored for anyone,” said Carlos Luna Villacorta, a former alternate magistrate on the court. “It must inspire more confidence above all with its most controversial decisions.”

The new court was completed Wednesday, when President Bernardo Arévalo announced his selections of Gladys Annabella Morfín, a former solicitor general, and her alternate María Magdalena Jocholá, a Kaqchikel Maya lawyer and academic specializing in Indigenous issues.

Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has been at the center of the country’s battle against corruption. The court has ruled in high-profile cases on the future of an international anti-corruption commission and the release of a former president charged with corruption.

The Constitutional Court is Guatemala’s highest and its decisions cannot be appealed. Alternates step in when a magistrate has a conflict or on constitutional questions that must be heard by seven magistrates.

When former President Jimmy Morales terminated the mandate of an anti-corruption commission known as the CICIG in 2019, the Constitutional Court acted as a key democratic safeguard and ruled his decision unconstitutional.

But the court took a turn when new magistrates were elected in 2021.

For example, the court in April 2024 upheld the release from prison of former President Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015), who had been convicted in two separate cases of corruption.

In addition to Arévalo’s selections, the Supreme Court of Justice, Congress, University of San Carlos and the country’s bar association each selected a magistrate, as well as an alternate.

Four of the five principal magistrates will be women on the new court, which will be seated in April.

Political analyst Renzo Rosal said the new court appears to be “relatively balanced.”

“The court leans conservative, but nothing else can be expected of the (Constitutional Court),” since its essence is applying the Constitution, he said. “What we need is a group of magistrates who must stabilize (the court) and allow it to be an institution that halts the mistrust of justice, that serves the people and not the spurious spaces like now.”

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo speaks to the press ahead of Congress choosing their representatives to serve as magistrates on the Constitutional Court in Guatemala City, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

People gather outside Congress as lawmakers choose their representatives to serve as magistrates on the Constitutional Court in Guatemala City, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)