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I've read various references that it is not uncommon that modern passenger jets' computer systems need an occasional reboot to fix some erratic state.
Of course, that is done on the ground and passengers sit a while in the dark before the plane is restarted.

Say an A320, or a 767, or the like would encounter a serious computer problem while at travel altitude. Could a complete reboot of all systems (aka power down and restart the entire plane) be performed while in the air?

Edit: Topic 27629 already gives some information on the subject, that rebooting a few subsystems is sometimes performed in flight, but some problems require powering down the whole plane.

ManoG1234609
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    Which computer systems? For example, an Airbus A350 has six redundant flight computers (three primary, three secondary, each one of them again doubly-redundant), several CPIOMs (each at least doubly-redundant), computers for the in-flight entertainment, passenger information systems, cabin information systems, etc. Each engine has multiply-redundant FADECs. On the A380, there are separate computer systems for the slides and doors. And so on … I would assume, for example, that rebooting a media server in flight would in the worst case lead to an interruption in a movie. – Jörg W Mittag Feb 03 '24 at 23:14
  • @ManoG1234609 What specifically did you read, and where? – Brad Feb 04 '24 at 02:29
  • https://aviation.stackexchange.com/q/2072/27629 – Brad Feb 04 '24 at 02:40
  • I cannot remember but there was one accident caused by pilot on and off computer in-flight. – vasin1987 Feb 04 '24 at 14:15
  • "some problems require powering down the whole plane.". Do you have a reference for this? – Michael Hall Feb 04 '24 at 19:05

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There would be no powering down the entire aircraft in flight. No fly-by-wire system could even do this. Computer-wise, it's possible to shut down and restart some of these mostly due to redundancy. @sophit said it well.

Taylor B
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