Ammon – A New York-bound flight was canceled moments before takeoff last week when a passenger discovered several screws missing from the plane’s wing.
British traveler Phil Hardy (41 years old) was on the flight at Manchester Airport in the United Kingdom on January 15 when he noticed the screws were missing and decided to alert the cabin crew.
A Virgin Atlantic representative said that engineers were immediately called to conduct maintenance checks on the Airbus A330 before its scheduled takeoff to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
He added: “The flight ended with the flight being canceled to provide time for additional precautionary engineering maintenance checks, which allowed our team the maximum time to complete the inspections.”
Hardy said airline employees repeatedly reassured him there was no safety issue with the wing, but his concerns increased given the recent ordeal in which an Alaska Airlines plane lost its door seal and part of the fuselage flew off mid-flight.
Engineer Neil Firth added that the damaged panel was a secondary structure used to improve the aircraft’s aerodynamics.
“Each of these panels has 119 fasteners, so there was no impact on structural integrity, and the aircraft was safe to operate,” he said.
He added: “As a precaution, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance inspection, and the stabilizers were replaced.”
Sky News
