I dont know why you're even questioning this. Any aircraft in which you could see a part of the wing ripped off is UNSAFE even if Wilbur Wright signed off on the inspection sheet. We used to ground aircraft for even the slightest delamination on the wing.
Rather than trying to justify this breach of QA Protocol, just chalk it up to a lapse of judgement and move on.
I dont know why you're even questioning this. Any aircraft in which you could see a part of the wing ripped off is UNSAFE even if Wilbur Wright signed off on the inspection sheet. We used to ground aircraft for even the slightest delamination on the wing.
I'm questioning it because I think people (you) are jumping to conclusions without knowing enough of the facts. The winglet pictured was from the other plane (and yes, it looked very bad, but it wasn't the plane in question here). If the A340's wingtip was only minimally damaged, and it was properly removed, and if it's certified to fly without it, and if the rest of the wing was properly inspected and found to be safe, then this was probably a reasonable move. I'm guessing all those things did happen; the airline would not want to open itself to an accident, and the pilots are probably not stupid.
But don't let details and facts get in the way of trashing the airline.
Delamination would scare the h*ll out of me. A missing winglet would only scare out the heck.