Virgin Atlantic Flight Canceled After Missing Screws Discovered

Phil Hardy alerted an airline employee to a potentially serious issue right before takeoff.

On Jan. 15, the British traveler was onboard a New York-bound Virgin Atlantic flight when he spotted four screws missing from the plane’s wing during a safety briefing for passengers. Hardy, 41, immediately notified the cabin crew before takeoff. 

“I’m a good flyer, but my partner was not loving the information I was telling her and starting to panic, and I was trying to put her mind at rest as much as I could,” Hardy told the Kennedy News about the scary incident that occurred on Flight VS127 at Manchester Airport in the United Kingdom, according to the New York Post. 

“I thought it was best to mention it to a flight attendant to be on the safe side.”

On Monday, Hardy captured cellphone video footage of engineers fixing the Airbus A330 aircraft minutes before it was scheduled to take off to NYC’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the short video, a mechanic can be seen placing and fastening screws into the missing areas of the plane’s wing. Hardy and his partner watched nervously as the mechanic fastened the screws.

Despite fixing the issue, Virgin Atlantic ultimately canceled flight VS127 out of precaution and to allow more time for “additional maintenance checks,” Business Insider noted. Passengers were rebooked on alternative flights heading to NYC.

“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and this was not compromised at any point,” representatives from the airline said in a statement. “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 journey.”

An Airbus A330 engineer claimed Virgin Atlantic flight VS127 was still safe to fly.

Neil Firth, the local chief wing engineer for the A330 aircraft, insisted that the plane was still safe to fly in a statement to Business Insider. Firth said that the screws were missing from a secondary structure panel on the plane used to “improve the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft” and would not have impacted the flight’s mobility.

“Each of these panels has 119 fasteners, so there was no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate,” he added. “As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check, and the fasteners were replaced.”

The scary incident comes just over a week after a door plug attached to an Alaska Airlines flight ripped off mid-air.

On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft en route to Ontario, Canada, from Portland, Oregon, was forced to land immediately after the aircraft’s door tore off mid-air, leaving a wide hole in the side of the plane. No one was injured during the incident.

Four missing bolts were discovered in the door plug of the Boeing Max 9 flight operated by Alaska Air. According to a press release, the shocking discovery prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground all Boeing Max 9 airplanes for further inspection and maintenance. The FAA has also launched an investigation into the incident. 

“This incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again,” the administration said.  

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