Last week, a Virgin Atlantic flight to New York was canceled after an alarmed passenger noticed several screws missing from the plane's wing just before takeoff.
British tourist Phil Hardy, 41, was on board the Flt. On January 15, during a safety briefing for passengers on flight VS127 at Manchester Airport in the United Kingdom, a flight attendant noticed four missing clasps and decided to alert the flight attendants.
“I'm a good flyer, but my partner didn't like the information I was giving her and was starting to panic. I was trying to calm her down as much as I could,” Hardy told Kennedy. told. The moment he found the missing fixture.
“I thought it would be best to tell the flight attendants, just to be on the safe side.”
Virgin Atlantic officials said engineers were immediately called in to perform a maintenance check on the Airbus A330 before its scheduled takeoff to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.
Footage taken by Hardy showed one of the engineers climbing onto the plane's wing and using a screwdriver to fiddle with some of the fasteners.
Hardy said airline staff repeatedly reassured her there were no safety issues with the wing, but given the recent ordeal in which an Alaska Airlines jet lost a door plug and part of the fuselage flew off mid-flight. , said his anxiety increased.
Both Virgin and Airbus stressed that although there were no modifications to the aircraft last week, there was no safety impact.
A Virgin representative said: “We ultimately decided to suspend operations to allow time for additional preventive technical maintenance checks. I'm now able to find time,” he said.
“The safety of our customers and crew has always been our top priority, and this was never compromised at any point,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We always work well above industry safety standards and the aircraft is now back in service.”
Neil Firth, Airbus' local wing engineer for the A330, added that the affected panels were secondary structures used to improve the plane's aerodynamics.
“These panels each have 119 fasteners, so the structural integrity or load capacity of the wing was not affected and the aircraft was safe to operate,” he said.
“As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent additional maintenance and the fasteners were replaced.”
The passengers were then rebooked on alternative flights to the Big Apple.
A Virgin representative said: “We apologize for any delays to your travels.”
