New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) Aerospace giant Airbus recalling about half of its global fleet over a commercial plane's sudden altitude drop brings into sharp focus the importance of space weather in flight safety, even as experts raise questions about the company's analysis that a powerful solar flare caused damage to flight software.

An A320 aircraft unexpectedly lost altitude during a Mexico-US flight on October 30, injuring 15 passengers. In a statement on November 28, Airbus linked the incident to damage suffered by flight software due to "intense solar radiation".

Experts said intense cosmic radiation can cause "single-event upsets", which can corrupt data, but added that they found no significant solar event of concern on October 30.

Dibyendu Nandi, a space weather expert at the Centre

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