Virgin Atlantic Flight Canceled After Passenger Spots Wing Problem

Flight attendants were very dismissive of me when I pointed out there was something wrong with left phalange. Nice of them to listen to somebody, for once.

Flight attendants were dismissive of a passenger who noticed a hole in the wing of an Air France Concorde departing from IAD. He insisted and the pilot came to see it and was shocked.

Flight attendants were dismissive of a passenger who noticed a hole in the wing of an Air France Concorde departing from IAD. He insisted and the pilot came to see it and was shocked.

Yup. June 14, 1979. Ship F-BVFC.

Tire blew out so bad that it sent rubber and fragments of the water-deflectors not only into, but clear THROUGH, the left wing. It cased a massive fuel leak, disrupted the aircraft's trim, and damaged a secondary hydraulic line.

PICTURE of the damage, here:

.......but it still took a passenger's insistence for a pilot to come look at the damage, before it was decided to discontinue the flight!

I observed a massive leak of fluorescent green fluid from the wing on a takeoff of an Air Canada 737 MAX plane in IAH and told a flight attendant, who took it seriously and promptly called the senior flight attendant, who then explained it was de-icing fluid remaining from the previous flight from Canada.

Former fighter jet mechanic here. Let me tell you how big of a non-issue 4 screws missing on a panel with 119 screws. Missing screws are rather common and most likely were a broken nut plate. Instead of removing 119 screws so you can access the nut plate, you document the missing screws in the aircraft forms so everyone is aware. There are tolerances on how many screws can be missing, and only once you pass the threshold do you remove the panel and fix the nut plate.
It's actually rare to find a plane without missing screws on a panel somewhere. And I know of no mechanic of who pull a panel with 119 screws to replace 4 missing ones. I used to have to do it with a speed handle as cordless drills were not in use in the mid 90's, and it literally was the worst part of the job. Besides getting burned everyday taking oil samples, and cut often where super glue is your best friend.
I'm shocked this flight was cancelled. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

I guess the question is, was this caught in preflight? I’m guessing not, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a need to investigate further. Unless maybe it was an optics thing, and VS didn’t want the appearance of improperly mantained aircraft.

Holly crap that’s a big hole, how anyone could see that and think it’s ok is beyond me.

On a UA 772 ORD-LHR decades ago I noticed what looked like a length of black rubber hose or weatherstrip dangling from one of the ailerons/flaps inboard of the port engine and brought it up with the crew. We ended up back at the gate, and deplaned to a replacement.

Glad I looked out there... but I wasn't the only one who apprised crew.

Of course it’s gotta be G-VGEN that has lose screws and obsessively need to make sure what’s inside belongs to G-VGEN

You won’t have any problems like this on G-MEAT

"I'm shocked this flight was cancelled. It doesn't make a lick of sense."

A model variant is grounded, and a major manufacturer's competence has been questioned in the media every day for the last week (over what may turn out to be missing or damaged screws), and you're wondering why Virgin likely wanted to hush the visuals of this situation in the most expedient way possible?

@Ryan

I think it was already in flight too. The flight attendant was probably just so used to telling people that there's nothing to worry about, that (s)he didn't even actually look.

It was actually G-VGEM. VAA name their planes in connection with the registration, in this case ‘Diamond Lady’.

What is troubling is the failure of the pre-flight walk around to discover this visible problem.

@joepro same.
Shocking, then I then found out the plane didn’t even have a left phalange! Needless to say, I got off the plane.

G-VGEM

The wings for airbus aircraft are made 30 miles from Manchester airport. It is Possible an engineer from airbus who worked on the wings sptted the missing bits

I think I remember an old documentary where a passenger on a plane actually saw a man out on the wing, actually tampering with one of the motors!!. But in the end, he was just some kind of a nut .

Brodie, if the missing screws were on the leading edge , even one of them it’s a no go item. I’m guessing that was the situation.

That was The Twilight Zone movie. Great scene.

Unless the fasteners were on the top of the wing. Which is what the passenger would be able to see.

As flawed as these anecdotes make the system sound, how many fatalities are we seeing in commercial aviation as a result of these issues?

I stand corrected.

I'm just quoting the registration from the post without fact checks. Or maybe there is a plane named 'Salad Lady'.

A Decade ago I was on SQ at JFK and realized that Although it was not snowing, the wings were coated in snow and ice from the snow 11 hours prior. I risked arrest by demanding the cabin crew make sure the cockpit was aware. I also texted my family. When the doors closed the Captain announced we would be waiting for our turn at deicing and likely be delayed. The delay announcement was music to my ears!

Once canceled a Sunwing flight when I noticed a hole under the wing after my wing inspection as a de-icer… Miss working in ops

Just as a small point of detail, I think the aircraft registration was probably G-VGEM rather than G-VGEN. The latter does not exist in Virgin’s fleet, but the former does.

You did not comprehend anything I said. If you had you would have realized 4 missing screws is not a matter of optics. Lord

Not quite as dramatic but once shortly after boarding I noticed something broken underneath the seat in front of me with a bit of sharpish looking fractured metal sticking down not too far from where my feet/ankles could get. I decided to tell cabin crew - they said they’d tell flight deck. Turned out it was in the tech log, had been inspected by an certified engineer and signed off as safe. The broken part was in fact part of the seat recline mechanism and so my report meant the crew kept checking that the passenger in the seat was only reclining the seat as far as his neighbour could for my comfort. Crew thanked me for reporting it promptly. Another later occasion (on BA short haul) the stuff that converts some middle seats in the front rows into a console between the aisle and window seats for business class use was not stowed correctly on my husband’s seat. I knew this was a problem as it would stop him putting his feet right back for the brace position - he was dismissive but I called crew thinking they’d just sort it. Turned out it was jammed and needed a technician to fix or neither of us could sit there (me in window.) Fortunately bloke with high viz and tool box appeared after boarding complete, fixed the seat and we were saved a move down the back - the flight looked pretty full so this could have been a not so great outcome at all. See something, say something! Bad luck the missing screw caps cancelled the flight but better safe than sorry…

4 missing bolts was the cause of this F-117 crash in 1997:
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9712/12/briefs/stealth.fighter.crash

No plane should have any thing missing on it it’s happening a lot lately plane doors coming of missing bolts this should not be happening at all it’s becoming a pattern now what’s going on in the last 3 weeks to many planes have had problems lack of checks in my book much to many planes are having problems it seems it being doing deliberately all them Boeing’s plane s bolts of a virgin plane doors of another plane something going on hear

Not all angels have wings.

I appreciate that Virgin Atlantic listened to the passwnger observation and took a cautious approach to the situation. We'll done!

In March or April 1981, I boarded a TWA Fight from JFK to Athens on a 747-SP (I think it was an “SP” — it was for longer range flights than the regular 747s). A USAF colleague and I were assigned seats in a three-seat bank by an emergency exit. When we sat down the whole set of three seats “rocked” — it was not secured properly to the deck. I pointed this out to a flight attendant and she told one of the pilots. They called maintenance and we waited. The maintenance guy arrived without a tool belt and disappeared to get tools. While waiting, I got out my small crescent wrench and Swiss Army knife (which we were allowed to carry on commercial flights in those days) and got down on my hands & knees and re-secured the seat. The pilot in the meantime announced our departure was delayed due to a mechanical problem — which we knew was our “loose seat.”. I told the flight attendant that our seat was fuxed, but she said we had to wait for the maintenance man to check it out before we could depart. Finally the maintenance guy returned, inspected my fix of the seat, pronounced it “fixed.” Then we departed for Athens — about half an hour late.

A random passenger would not have known that anything was missing. I assume it was a pilot, cabin crew member, or engineer.

Lol phalange okay Phoebe.