Virgin Atlantic flight canceled after passenger notices missing bolts on wing

Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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A Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester, England, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York was canceled after a passenger reportedly noticed four missing fasteners on the top of the Airbus A330’s wing.

The passenger alerted a crew member during the safety briefing just moments before flight VS127 was about to depart on Jan 15, according to the Manchester Evening News.

The crew tried reassuring the passenger there were no safety concerns despite the missing fasteners, but he said he felt extra nervous after the Alaska Airlines incident in which a piece of fuselage blew out mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the plane. The Jan. 8 event prompted a grounding order from the Federal Aviation Administration of Boeing 737 Max 9 airplanes.

Engineers were called to inspect the plane, and the flight “was cancelled to provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance checks, which allowed our team the maximum time to complete their inspections,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told USA TODAY.

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“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority and this was not compromised at any point,” the airline continued. “We always work well above industry safety standards and the aircraft is now back in service. We’d like to apologise to our customers for the delay to their journeys.”

According to Airbus UK's Chief Wing Engineer Neil Firth, the missing fasteners had “no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate.”

The panel in question is part of a secondary structure dedicated to enhancing the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. Each panel has 119 fasteners.

“As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check, and the fasteners were replaced,” Firth continued.

Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Virgin Atlantic flight canceled after missing bolts on wing