logoalt Hacker News

Airbus A320 Fly by wire corrupted by radiation in flight

30 pointsby JohannMactoday at 8:06 PM19 commentsview on HN

Comments

sxptoday at 8:32 PM

The title sounds like speculative clickbait.

From https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-11-ai...:

  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.
This is different from the core claim that the incident was caused by radiation. What are the prior probabilities that the system was exposed to "intense radiation"? Vs some other mundane cause such as a faulty wire or mechanical issues? And what is the evidence supporting the former hypothesis?
show 2 replies
userbinatortoday at 8:26 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-event_upset

Apparently it has happened to an Airbus once before.

show 1 reply
JohannMactoday at 8:06 PM

Caused uncommanded pitch down, could exceed structural integrity of aircraft. There are redundant units - unknown why this can happen given redundancy.

show 2 replies
lysacetoday at 8:31 PM

So the patch will be physical, I imagine.

("Apply this very expensive special tape from (e.g.) 3M here and here.")

show 1 reply
ChrisArchitecttoday at 8:21 PM

Airbus issues major A320 recall after flight-control incident https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-is... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46081628)