“My wife was starting to panic”: a passenger discovers that screws are missing from the wing of his Airbus

A passenger noticed four missing fixings on the wing of his plane, an Airbus A330 (illustrative photo). http://imagebroker.com – MaxPPP

A Virgin Atlantic flight to New York was canceled after a passenger alerted staff about missing screws on the wing of the plane, an Airbus A330.

Another setback on a flight. Friday January 5, 2024, an Alaska Airlines airliner, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, lost an evacuation door in vol. 

On January 8, a clearly loose nut was found on a Boeing 737 Max during checks by United Airlines, preventing it from being put into service.

Missing fasteners

On January 15, 2024, another setback, this time for the Airbus company. A Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester, in the United Kingdom, to New York was canceled following the discovery of missing fixings on the wing of the plane, tells France 3 this Sunday, taking up information from New York Post.

On an Airbus A330

A 41-year-old British traveler notices four missing fasteners on the wing of his plane, an Airbus A330, during the passenger safety briefing, says New York Post. "My wife didn't really like what I was saying to her and was starting to panic" , he explains to the New York media. Worried, he decides to report the situation to the crew.

Flight canceled

Engineers were quickly dispatched to the site to carry out the necessary checks. Virgin Atlantic and Airbus assured there were no safety issues, but the flight was canceled for further checks to be carried out.

Neil Firth, Airbus' local chief engineer for the A330, told the New York Post that the affected panel was a secondary structure used to improve the aerodynamics of the aircraft. "Each of these panels has 119 fasteners. There was therefore no impact on the structural integrity or load capacity of the wing, and the aircraft could be operated safely. .

Checks carried out, the Airbus has now resumed its commercial rotations.