“Well, at least it’s not a Boeing.”
That was likely the thoughts of everyone in the Boeing C-suite, exhaling a collective sigh of relief, when the latest airline safety mishap began making its rounds through the newscycle Monday.
That news was the cancellation of an Airbus A330 flight bound for New York after 41 year old passenger Phil Hardy looked out the window and noticed “screws missing from the plane’s wing,” according to the New York Post.
The plane, set to take off as Flight VS127 from Manchester Airport, had “four missing fasteners,” according to the report.
Hardy, a frequent flyer, said: “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.”
He continued: “I thought it was best to mention it to a flight attendant to be on the safe side.”
Engineers showed up to examine the plane and the flight was eventually cancelled.
A representative for Virgin Air said the flight was cancelled to “provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance checks, which allowed our team the maximum time to complete their inspections.”
They continued in a statement: “The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority and this was not compromised at any point. We always work well above industry safety standards and the aircraft is now back in service.”
An Airbus chief wing engineer said the panel was supplemental and was secured properly: “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.”
“As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check, and the fasteners were replaced,” he concluded.
