fsync() system call on ext3 causes blocked task messages

Issue

System panics with a process blocked in an fsync() system call on a ext3 filesystem.

INFO: task syslogd:3217 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
syslogd       D ffff810279c77510     0  3217      1          3220  3184 (NOTLB)
 ffff810277547d98 0000000000000082 ffff810277547da8 ffffffff80063002
 0000000000000000 0000000000000009 ffff810278edc040 ffff81027f54d7e0
 000604cabfe9c44d 00000000000004d9 ffff810278edc228 00000001000004bb
Call Trace:
 [<ffffffff80063002>] thread_return+0x62/0xfe
 [<ffffffff88036e3d>] :jbd:log_wait_commit+0xa3/0xf5
 [<ffffffff800a2fa2>] autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x2e
 [<ffffffff80099f07>] process_timeout+0x0/0x5
 [<ffffffff8803179a>] :jbd:journal_stop+0x1d3/0x203
 [<ffffffff8002fa73>] __writeback_single_inode+0x1dd/0x31c
 [<ffffffff800e36bc>] do_readv_writev+0x26e/0x291
 [<ffffffff800f678d>] sync_inode+0x24/0x33
 [<ffffffff8804c382>] :ext3:ext3_sync_file+0xce/0xf8
 [<ffffffff8004ff1d>] do_fsync+0x52/0xa4
 [<ffffffff800e3f49>] __do_fsync+0x23/0x36
 [<ffffffff8005d28d>] tracesys+0xd5/0xe0

Kernel panic - not syncing: hung_task: blocked tasks