Over what must have been a frantic weekend, Airbus has pushed out an update that threatened to ground around 6,000 A320 aircraft.

The recall was prompted by a November 30 incident on a JetBlue A320 flight from Cancun to Newark, which experienced a sudden loss of altitude and had to divert to Tampa.

READ: Aviation staff subjected to abuse when disruption occurs, finds ABN and IBS Software study

Investigations revealed that intense solar radiation could corrupt data in the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC) system, which controls the aircraft’s pitch. This vulnerability was linked to a software issue, and a fix was quickly deployed to operators who worked around the clock over the weekend to fix the issue.

While most carriers continued operating with minor delays, some were forced to cancel flights. ANA cancelled 95 flights; Jetstar cancelled about 90 flights.

Apologising for the event, Airbus has confirmed this morning (Dec 1) that the ‘vast majority’ have now received the necessary modifications.

“We are working with our airline customers to support the modification of less than 100 remaining aircraft to ensure they can be returned to service”, the aircraft maker said in an update.