Althouse: "A New Jersey-bound airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet in the air... was likely struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy, according to space experts."

December 5, 2025

"A New Jersey-bound airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet in the air... was likely struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy, according to space experts."

"The JetBlue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert.... 'They can cause a simple bit flip, like a zero to one or one to zero. They can mess up information and make things go wrong. But they can cause hardware failures too, when they induce a current in an electronic device and burn it out.'"

From "NJ-bound plane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet likely hit by ‘cosmic rays’ from a whole other galaxy" (NY Post).

61 comments:

wild chicken said...: I think one of the passengers did a TiTok right afterward, really shaken, and I wondered well how could that could it have been...lol; 12/5/25, 9:44 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "A stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast travelling millions of years causing a simple bit to flip."

Ian Malcolm smiles.; 12/5/25, 9:50 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: In the show Pluribus (spoiler) the protagonist has a temper tantrum and thousands, maybe over a hundred thousand people die.; 12/5/25, 9:53 AM
Jamie said...: Yeah, this is my nightmare - one of them, anyway.; 12/5/25, 9:58 AM
baghdadbob said...: More likely expllanation: a passenger forgot to put his cellphone on "airplane mode."; 12/5/25, 9:59 AM
Achilles said...: That isn’t really how any of this works.

If any circuit in an avionics box like this can be affected how they are talking about people at airbus should be going to jail.

“Cosmic rays” don’t do this.; 12/5/25, 10:00 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: "maybe over a hundred thousand people die."
11 Million die.; 12/5/25, 10:02 AM
baghdadbob said...: Look here brother, who you jiving with that Cosmic Debris? h/t Zappa.; 12/5/25, 10:03 AM
Achilles said...: I am at work with a bunch of people who know how this all works.

This story is bullshit on so many levels.

Planes would be falling out of the sky left and right if this could happen. “Cosmic Rays” are not special. The sun emits them. Your phone emits them.

The NYP got some clicks.; 12/5/25, 10:04 AM
Aggie said...: Scientist says 'it's likely it was...'

Uh-huh. Slow News Day alert. It did succeed in grounding the A320 fleet though, supposedly for a software patch. But: A software patch wouldn't correct a piece of circuitry fried by a surge.

"...when it fell out of the sky for no apparent reason in a frightening bout of extreme turbulence...."

So.... turbulence, then. A potential 'apparent reason'.; 12/5/25, 10:06 AM
Wince said...: Isn't this what airlines do to avoid liability under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur? Another example was the alleged ground-to-air missile that struck TWA 800.

In a res ipsa loquitur case, an intervening cause (another event or person causing harm) acts as a defense by breaking the chain of causation, showing the defendant didn't have exclusive control or that the injury resulted from something else, allowing the defense to rebut the inference of negligence by proving an unforeseeable, independent force (like a third party or plaintiff's own actions) was the real cause, thus defeating the plaintiff's circumstantial case.

How it works (The Defense Strategy)
Res Ipsa Loquitur Basics: This doctrine lets juries infer negligence when an accident usually only happens with negligence, the defendant had exclusive control, and the plaintiff didn't contribute, shifting the burden to the defendant to prove they weren't negligent.

Intervening Cause as a Defense: The defendant argues that a new, independent event (the intervening cause) occurred after their action but before the injury, making it the true cause, not their initial act.

Proving Control: The defense challenges the "exclusive control" element, showing another party (a third party) or an unforeseeable event (like a sudden natural disaster or unforeseeable action) intervened and took control.

Breaking Causation: By proving the intervening cause was a new, superseding force (something the original defendant couldn't reasonably foresee), the defense breaks the link between the defendant's potential negligence and the final injury, relieving the defendant of liability.; 12/5/25, 10:07 AM
Achilles said...: If this was a Boeing plane the NYP would be blaming Boeing.

I think Murdoch has an investment in Airbus.; 12/5/25, 10:10 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Btw. I’m in no way intimating that the NTSB gets ideas about airline incidents from AppleTv shows.
That’s more of a CDC jab.; 12/5/25, 10:10 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Years ago on a field trip to the Griffith Park Observatory, I saw this:

Spark Chamber.

"Cosmic rays are not rays, but high-energy particles from space. When they collide with gas molecules in our upper atmosphere, muons and other “secondary rays” are created. These constantly shower down to Earth’s surface.

Dozens of those secondary cosmic rays pass through our bodies every second. We can detect them when they go through a spark chamber and cause electrical disturbances."; 12/5/25, 10:12 AM
Wince said...: MadTownGuy quoted...
"Cosmic rays are not rays, but high-energy particles from space. When they collide with gas molecules in our upper atmosphere, muons and other “secondary rays” are created.

Muon?; 12/5/25, 10:17 AM
rhhardin said...: They design for it. What didn't work was the software recovery which was missing from that software release. The fix was just reinstalling the previous release of the software, without the omission.

The plunge thousands of feet thing just means go downhill. It's the transition from level to downhill that causes sensations, not the downhill. If it's sudden you notice.; 12/5/25, 10:19 AM
n.n said...: Articles of faith in seance... science.; 12/5/25, 10:20 AM
Rocco said...: Craft hit by cosmic rays? Was Ben Grimm the pilot with Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm on board?; 12/5/25, 10:22 AM
Levi Starks said...: There could literally not be a more bogus explanation.
Let’s paraphrase the statement,
A billion years ago a star coughed and today that cough reached into the control of one particular plane and flipped a one to a zero, and the plane fell 1000 feet while control struggled to decide which digit had been flipped.; 12/5/25, 10:22 AM
Levi Starks said...: Ok, that was still too complicated, let’s try again,
“In a galaxy far far away”; 12/5/25, 10:24 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The Socials generated feud between the Kardashians and the Markles is sending shockwaves across the entertainment landscape observers say. Gamers are advised to take precautions out of an abundance of caution.; 12/5/25, 10:24 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Rocco beat me to it; 12/5/25, 10:25 AM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Margorie Taylor Green Jewish Space Lasers! See I told you...; 12/5/25, 10:29 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: It’s just as likely that monkeys flew out of my ass after reading this story.; 12/5/25, 10:33 AM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 10:33 AM
Jess said...: Maybe Clive Dyer was hit by cosmic radiations. That would explain the article.; 12/5/25, 10:33 AM
Wince said...: Rocco said...
Craft hit by cosmic rays? Was Ben Grimm the pilot with Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm on board?

Or Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber) for that matter.

https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/richard-reids-shoes; 12/5/25, 10:34 AM
Amexpat said...: This is nothing compared to what the Carrington effect will do.; 12/5/25, 10:35 AM
gilbar said...: so, Just To Be CLEAR..
This Intergalactic ATTACK,
was due to impeachable offences by "President" Trump?
How Much LONGER, will we be injured by this man?; 12/5/25, 10:38 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: 11 Million die.

That figure probably came from a Spinal Tap fan.; 12/5/25, 10:40 AM
hawkeyedjb said...: The aftermath of the exploding Alderaan.; 12/5/25, 10:49 AM
phantommut said...: Back in the 90s when I did tech support and a computer would crash out of the blue, I always explained that it was probably from cosmic rays.; 12/5/25, 10:49 AM
n.n said...: Electronic or mechanical malfunction or aerodynamic dysfunction.; 12/5/25, 10:50 AM
Quaestor said...: "It’s just as likely that monkeys flew out of my ass after reading this story."

Dyer's assumption is far more likely to be correct than virtually anything we typically accept as certain. Here's the evidence.

Those very bright points are stars in our own galaxy, but the rest of those dots are unfathomably distant galaxies and quasars. In between those faint orange dots are probably other objects and stellar conglomerates that are red-shifted completely out of the visible EM spectrum. No matter what direction we look, the number of galaxies that exist between the visible stars in our field of view exceeds the stellar population of the Milky Way by hundreds, perhaps thousands of orders of magnitude.; 12/5/25, 10:54 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 10:54 AM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 10:54 AM
Larry J said...: Radiation can induce single event upsets (SEUs) in integrated circuits. These SEUs don’t usually damage the hardware, but they can corrupt programs or data. Corrupting data can be bad, but corrupting programs and operating systems can be much worse.

ICs for space systems are usually hardened against radiation. Space rated ICs are expensive and typically generations behind the current state of the art. There are other means to accomplishing the same thing. Software can be programmed to be more robust against the SEU bit flips. SpaceX has used this approach successfully. Typically, this involves redundant systems running software that implements error detection and error correction protocols.

From what I’ve read, there was a problem on an Airbus A320 a few years ago. The software on the A320 was modified, but apparently, the patch introduced new issues. The airlines were ordered to reinstall the software on all A320s (some 6000 of them), which took about 2 hours per plane. It especially had an impact on airline operations around Thanksgiving. Being an airliner that uses full fly-by-wire systems. They have redundant computers, but if they’re all running the same software, then a really bad error can impact all of them.; 12/5/25, 11:03 AM
Joe Bar said...: @blancolirio covered this on his YouTube channel. It was a software error in redundant systems. The entire fleet was required to revert to the previous baseline software.; 12/5/25, 11:08 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: “ The JetBlue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert....”

Yeah, right. They’re just trying to cover up the truth…it was hit by a death ray from Russian flying saucer!; 12/5/25, 11:11 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 11:12 AM
PM said...: "Cleanup on aisles 1 through 30."; 12/5/25, 11:19 AM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 11:21 AM
Lazarus said...: In other words, it was swallowed up by a black hole.

Heartfelt apologies to Don Lemon: it really can happen.; 12/5/25, 11:23 AM
Big Mike said...: Amexpat said...

This is nothing compared to what the Carrington effect will do.

True that.; 12/5/25, 11:29 AM
Quaestor said...: According to the Standard Model, which may be less correct than assumed as recently as yesterday (JWT is such a bitch.) comic rays are emitted by supernovas, which are rare events, at least that's a common assumption. However, given the composition of observable universe, that cannot be the case over time. Most of the stars in our galaxy are M-class dwarves composed of the same chemical elements we detect in our parent star, a G-class yellow dwarf, and its attendant planets, which includes elements with atomic masses equal to or greater than iron (55.84). These weren't created in the Big Bang. Every atom of iron through to uranium and perhaps beyond, was birthed in the collapse of an O or B-class star composed entirely of primordial hydrogen and helium. Though we may think of supernovas as exceedly rare, over cosmic time that can't be the case. In our galaxy, O-class supergiants represent fewer than 1 in 3 million of the 225 billion stars that comprise the Milky Way. B-class stars, mostly doomed to end in supernovas, are much more common, yet still exceedly rare at roughly at 0.13% of the galactic population. However, our perception of their rarity is conditioned by our very deficient concept of time.; 12/5/25, 11:36 AM
Hey Skipper said...: RHhardin: They design for it. What didn't work was the software recovery which was missing from that software release. The fix was just reinstalling the previous release of the software, without the omission.

Absolutely correct.

One of the main reasons for error detection and correction is bits getting flipped by alpha particles emitted by natural atomic decay in the materials making up the component packaging.; 12/5/25, 11:41 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: This is a great theory in that a plantiff's lawyer cannot disprove it, saving the airline millions.; 12/5/25, 11:47 AM
boatbuilder said...: This sounds like the plot of "Buckaroo Banzai."; 12/5/25, 11:48 AM
Howard said...: Bit flipping was the undoing of Schrodinger's Cat.; 12/5/25, 11:55 AM
Temujin said...: Wonderful. Something else to consider when flying.; 12/5/25, 12:11 PM
Beasts of England said...: ’…when they induce a current in an electronic device and burn it out.’

This would never happen if they used tube avionics.; 12/5/25, 12:23 PM
Original Mike said...: Of course radiation-induced bit-flipping is a thing. It's a real concern as elements get tiny. I suspect the first line of defense in space hardware is to keep elements bigger than they could be.

Whether or not that's what happened in this case I have no way of knowing, though I see no reason to doubt them.; 12/5/25, 12:43 PM
Leland said...: Things not believed…; 12/5/25, 12:52 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 12:58 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: “A New Jersey-bound airplane…”

Sometimes the answer is hiding in plain sight.; 12/5/25, 1:00 PM
Justabill said...: There just isn’t enough to worry about, is there?; 12/5/25, 1:07 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/5/25, 1:14 PM
Quaestor said...: "I suspect the first line of defense in space hardware is to keep elements bigger than they could be."

I doubt that. Quantum interactions are matters of probability. Increasing the size of the target increases the likelihood of interaction. That's what the concept of critical mass is all about. Put enough fissile material with a given volume at a given density, the probability of a runaway chain reaction approaches certainty. Redundancy and error correction routines such as parity checks are more effective. Core memory of the sort used by the IBM System/360 was more prone to bit flipping than modern transistor-based DRAM. Making your sub-systems tiny makes more room for redundancy.; 12/5/25, 1:16 PM
Beasts of England said...: ’I suspect the first line of defense in space hardware is to keep elements bigger than they could be.’

Space hardware is hardened and often redundant, especially for man-rated projects. Oops, human-rated. Please forgive me.; 12/5/25, 1:21 PM
Quaestor said...: Back in the 1960s, there were uncounted just-so stories about absurd computer-generated errors, such as utility bills demanding millions of dollars for a typical suburban home's typical monthly power consumption. Such horror stories arose because the probability of bit flips induced by a quantum interaction was under appreciated by the electronics engineers of the 1950s.; 12/5/25, 1:30 PM
rhhardin said...: Enormous power bills came from skipping a month of meter reading in a month when you use less power than usual. The program guesses that you rolled the meter around once.; 12/5/25, 1:33 PM