The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the main certifying authority for A320 aircraft, issued the instruction on Friday night as a precautionary action, saying that “safety is paramount”. The US Federal Aviation Administration also issued an emergency airworthiness directive for certain Airbus planes, requiring the aircraft to replace or modify specific software. At the time Airbus issued its bulletin to the plane’s more than 350 operators, about 3,000 A320-family jets were in the air. The world’s largest A320 operator, American Airlines, said 209 of its 480 A320 aircraft would need the fix. The carrier, along with affiliates such as Peach Aviation, is the biggest operator in Japan of single-aisle Airbus aircraft, including the A320.
