Virgin Atlantic cancelled a New-York bound flight after a passenger noticed four screws-heads were missing on one of its wings.
The passenger notified the cabin crew moments before take-off.
Flight VS127 to John F. Kennedy International Airport, was stopped from taking off from Manchester Airport on Jan. 15 as engineers inspected the aircraft.
Engineers then found four adjacent fasteners with Philips screw-heads were missing from a panel on one of the wings.
According to Virgin Atlantic, each of the wing panels on the Airbus A330 has 119 fasteners, and the four tops that were missing “did not impact the structural integrity of the wing, the load capability of the wing or the ability of the aircraft to operate safely,”
An Airbus local chief wing engineer for A330 told The Mirror that the affected panel was a secondary structure used to improve aerodynamics. The four fasteners that were missing “did not impact the structural integrity of the wing, the load capability of the wing or the ability of the aircraft to operate safely.”
“The panel in the image is a secondary structure panel, used to improve the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft,” Neil Firth, an Airbus local chief wing engineer for the A330, said in a statement, Manchester Evening News reported.
“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.”
The transatlantic flight was nevertheless cancelled as a “precautionary measure” and the aircraft underwent a full maintenance check. The missing tops of the fasteners were later replaced, Manchester Evening News reported.
“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,” Virgin Atlantic said, the outlet reported. “We’d like to apologize to our customers for the delay to their journeys.”
The incident comes just a few weeks after a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 plane that was at 16,000 feet and climbing after departing Portland, Oregon, for Ontario, California. The loss of the panel depressurized the cabin, two cellphones were sucked out of the airplane and a child’s shirt was ripped off his body.
The plane returned safely to Portland with no serious injuries reported.
The door panel crashed in the backyard of a Portland a school teacher. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, it remains unclear if the panel was properly bolted. An investigation is ongoing.
A few days later, United Airlines announced that it found loose bolts on one of its planes of the same type—a Boeing 737 MAX 9.
“Since we began preliminary inspections on Saturday, we have found instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug—for example, bolts that needed additional tightening,” the United Airlines said. “These findings will be remedied by our Tech Ops team to safely return the aircraft to service.”
In December, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration urged operators to inspects all 737 MAX aircraft for a loose bolt that could impact its rudder control system.
The incidents sparked controversy online, after Elon Musk drew attention to an X post written by Critical Race Theory expert James Lindsay regarding Boeing’s adoption of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) requirements—specifically, whether the company prioritized a candidate’s race or sex over competence in their hiring practices.
“Boeing’s corporate filings with the SEC reveal that in beginning 2022, the annual bonus plan to reward CEO and executives for increasing profit for shareholders and prioritizing safety was changed to reward them if they hit DEI targets,” Mr. Lindsay wrote.
