Flight Cancelled Due to Missing Wing Bolts Noticed by Passenger
British Traveler Helps Prevent Potential Disaster on Virgin Atlantic Flight
A potentially catastrophic situation was averted on January 15 when British traveler Phil Hardy noticed something amiss on his Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester Airport in England to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Hardy, 41, observed that four bolts were missing from the wing of the Airbus A330 aircraft, prompting him to alert the cabin crew.
Virgin Atlantic promptly called in their engineers to perform maintenance checks on the aircraft, with footage showing one of the engineers climbing onto the wing and repairing the fasteners with a screwdriver. As a result, the flight was canceled to ensure that additional precautionary engineering maintenance checks could be conducted.
Neil Firth, Airbus’ A330 local chief wing engineer, reassured the public that the missing bolts had no impact on the structural integrity or load capacity of the wing, stating that the aircraft was safe to operate. He further explained that the affected panel was a secondary structure used to improve the aircraft’s aerodynamics and that, while a total of 119 fasteners were located in each of these panels, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check and fasteners were replaced as a precaution.
Thanks to the quick thinking of Phil Hardy and the prompt action of the Virgin Atlantic engineering team, a potential disaster was averted, and passengers were spared from a potentially dangerous situation in the air. This serves as a reminder of the importance of vigilance and the critical role that preventative maintenance plays in ensuring the safety and security of air travel.
