JetBlue Airbus A320 was on a routine flight from Mexico to the United States. Suddenly, at an altitude of 11 km, the airliner unexpectedly began to lose altitude. The drop was so sharp that several passengers were injured when they hit the ceiling. The plane had to make an emergency landing in Florida, and the injured passengers were rushed to hospital.
After investigating, Airbus named the possible cause of the incident: cosmic rays. These are streams of charged particles from space moving at nearly the speed of light. When they hit microchips inside the aircraft’s control systems, they can temporarily change data—for example, switching a memory bit from 0 to 1 or vice versa. This phenomenon is called a “bit flip.” Such “interference” can be harmless, for example, it once helped a gamer set a record, or it can be critical. In the case of the A320, according to Airbus, the rays could have damaged data in the Elac flight control system, which is responsible for controlling the ailerons and tail.
Emergency pause
Modern aircraft are controlled by complex electronic systems, unlike older mechanical ones. This increases the risk, as damage to a single bit in the computer can affect the control of the entire aircraft.
After the incident, Airbus blocked flights of more than 6,000 aircraft for urgent software updates. The goal was to make the systems more resistant to “bit flips” by restoring damaged data faster.
An invisible threat from space
Airbus suggested that intense solar radiation was the cause. However, some experts, such as Keith Ryden from the University of Surrey, point out that there was no significant solar activity on that day. If not the Sun, then the source could have been powerful cosmic rays from deep space, for example, from supernova explosions.
This alarming incident serves as a reminder that our planet is constantly bombarded by particles from space. Usually, this goes unnoticed. But for vulnerable electronics, such cosmic interference can pose a real security threat.
According to BBC
