The schedules of multiple Wizz Air flights may change due to aircraft issues

Several Wizz Air flights will see schedule changes this weekend because maintenance is required on the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft. This problem is not limited to the Hungarian low-cost carrier; the French manufacturer Airbus must service over 6,000 aircraft, which could cause disruptions elsewhere too.

Sudden high-altitude descent

On 30 October, a JetBlue Airbus A320-200 suddenly began descending rapidly at cruising altitude (around 10,000 metres). Nearly a dozen passengers were injured before the autopilot stabilised the plane. Airbus immediately investigated and concluded that intense solar radiation may damage critical data essential for the A320’s flight control systems to function correctly.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) promptly issued an emergency airworthiness directive. The problem affects both older and neo versions of the aircraft. The planes have been divided into two groups: for two-thirds, simply updating the elevator aileron computer (ELAC)—the system controlling the movement of the tail and ailerons—is sufficient. Until the update is done, those aircraft cannot fly, or may only fly without passengers to the maintenance station. For the remaining one-third, EASA’s directive prohibits installing the faulty software altogether, airportal.hu wrote.

Wizz Air flight schedules may change

If the problem is not fixed, it can cause unintended elevator movements, leading to nose tipping and exceeding the aircraft’s structural load limits. Therefore, using the faulty ELAC software version is forbidden.

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