Posted on 01/22/2024 9:05:58 AM PST by lowbridge
A New York-bound Virgin Atlantic flight was canceled just moments before takeoff last week when an alarmed passenger said he spotted several screws missing from the plane’s wing.
British traveler Phil Hardy, 41, was onboard Flight VS127 at Manchester Airport in the UK on Jan. 15 when he noticed the four missing fasteners during a safety briefing for passengers and decided to alert the cabin crew.
“I’m a good flyer, but my partner was not loving the information I was telling her and starting to panic, and I was trying to put her mind at rest as much as I could,” Hardy told the Kennedy News agency of the moment he spotted the missing fixings.
“I thought it was best to mention it to a flight attendant to be on the safe side.”
Engineers were promptly called out to carry out maintenance checks on the Airbus A330 aircraft before its scheduled takeoff to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, a Virgin Atlantic rep said.
Footage shot by Hardy showed one of the engineers climbing onto the plane’s wing before using a screwdriver to tinker with some of the fasteners.
Hardy said airline staff repeatedly reassured him there was no safety issue with the wing, but his fear was heightened given the recent ordeal in which an Alaska Airlines plane lost its door plug and a chunk of its fuselage flew off mid-flight.
Both Virgin and Airbus stressed there was no impact to the safety of last week’s aircraft despite the missing fixings.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Every device has a few extra fasteners in it. When I fix something like my lawnmower, I always have a few bolts and nuts left over upon reassembly. Works fine.
With DEI, they may need to consider upping the extra count.
“Both Virgin and Airbus stressed there was no impact to the safety of last week’s aircraft despite the missing fixings.”
Four missing? No problem.
When do they begin to worry? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? Hundreds?
The wings are ‘fastened’ to the plane using bolts. The wing is one continuous structure that passes through the body of the plane. But I understand his cause for panic.
are = aren’t
So much with airlines today is handled by third party contractors and not the airline company itself.
“Each of these panels has 119 fasteners, so there was no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate,” he said.
What stupid reasoning. Those fastening points are there for a reason. Otherwise they wouldn’t be there in the first place.
EXACTLY.
That was my first thought. This is the sort of things to expect with DEI.
Well, after years of success in baggage mishandling it's the next step.
So how is it fastened to the fuselage? Superglue?
And the wing itself is attached to a wing box, I believe. It is not one contiguous element from what I understand.
Nothing to see here. Those extra bolts were totally unnecessary to the safety of the aircraft. Some dorky engineer just put them in the plans to show off his white supremacy. Besides, the mechanic doesn’t have time to go around fastening bolts all day! Sheesh!
NO problem. If one wing falls off it will just get to the ground faster.
Not funny.
Duct tape??? Are you kidding me??? I think you mean DOUBLE duct tape, don’t you?! I’m not getting on any plane YOU’VE duct taped, that’s for sure! (and make sure the end of the tape is on the underside of the wing, facing AWAY from the front of the plane, to avoid wind shear!)
Right. We used to have planes come back where the Dzus fasteners had popped on a panel. We would look at them to ensure they weren’t damaged, then re-fasten them.
Still. Returning to the gate is the right move.
And on a British carrier flying Airbuses.
That's correct. The wings are joined to each other with beams and the beams are attached to the wingbox. The wingbox is what carries the weight of the plane. It's effectively one contiguous structure like you said. Each individual wing is most certainly NOT bolted to the body of the airplane like this person thought. Wouldn't last very long if it were !
Pretty soon, they’ll have to stick a red metal plate in the cockpit that says, “experimental”. That fixes everything.
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