Airbus' global fleet experienced partial grounding after the European aircraft manufacturer discovered a technical fault linked to the effects of solar radiation on its A320 family aircraft.

Airbus explained in a statement that "strong solar radiation can damage critical data in flight control systems," noting that it had identified a significant number of affected aircraft, according to the European magazine Politico on Saturday.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) announced on Friday evening that it had decided to temporarily suspend some Airbus flights. This decision followed an incident in which the crew of a JetBlue flight from Florida to Mexico was forced to make an emergency landing due to a sudden loss of altitude; an incident that media reports indicated resulted in approximately 15 people being hospitalized.

Sara Ricci, head of communications for commercial aircraft at Airbus, explained that around 6,000 aircraft were affected by this fault. But she confirmed that 85% of the problems could be quickly resolved with a suitable software update, adding that "the vast majority will resume flights very soon."

Several European airlines, including Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines, announced they were affected by the technical issue, while Brussels Airlines stated that its flights were unaffected.