A technical issue on a flight with an Airbus aircraft led to the temporary grounding of 6,000 vessels of the same type in order to perform a necessary software update.

According to information, Aegean, which also operates such aircraft, has already begun the necessary software update recommended by the manufacturer and is thus expected to have zero or very little impact on its flight schedule – and even in such a case only for a few hours until the required software update on the aircraft is completed.

For the vast majority of aircraft, the fix via installation of new software will take around three hours, according to the BBC.

According to the relevant directive issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, from November 29, these aircraft will be allowed to carry passengers only after they have been repaired. Flights without passengers will be allowed in order to be transported to the designated facilities for their repair.

For about two-thirds of the aircraft affected by the measure, the recall will result in a relatively short grounding as airlines revert to an earlier version of software, according to industry sources.

The incident that prompted the major repair operation involved a JetBlue Airways plane flying from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on October 30. Flight 1230 made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida. Several people were taken to the hospital as the Airbus A320 suddenly lost altitude after experiencing a flight control problem.

According to Airbus data, approximately 11,300 A320 aircraft are in operation, of which 6,440 belong to the base model type.