"Bolter" er voldsomt overdrevet. (Red)
Flight Canceled After Alert Passenger
Notices No Bolts on Airplane Wing
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 1:20
PM ET, Sun January 21, 2024
An alert passenger, perhaps just
trying to be helpful and still having the memory of the January 5 incident in
which a side panel on an airplane blew off in midflight due to a problem with
the screws, noticed that there were missing bolts on the wing of his plane and
told the cabin crew.
The Virgin Atlantic flight was canceled moments
before takeoff earlier this week.
It was clearly a case of better safe
than sorry, however.
The airline erred on the side of
caution and canceled the Manchester, England, flight to New York for further
inspection.
Both Virgin Atlantic and Airbus, the
airplanes manufacturer, said that no passengers were at risk. An Airbus
spokesperson said that the panel in question is used “to improve the
aerodynamic performance of the aircraft.”
They did not say that the bolts, or fasteners
as they call them in England, were missing from the A330. The flight was
canceled “to provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance
checks.” Passengers were flown to New York on different flights.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said
that 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. We’d like to apologize to
our customers for the delay to their journeys.”
A previous Virgin Atlantic flight
this month was forced to turn back to Manchester Airport en route to Barbados
due to the cockpit reportedly filling with smoke.
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