Flight cancelled after passenger spots screws missing on plane wing

A Virgin Atlantic flight was cancelled over missing screws

A New York-bound flight was cancelled after a passenger spotted several screws missing on the plane wing. Phil Hardy, 41, was onboard the Virgin Atlantic flight on January 15 when he happened to look out and noticed four missing fasteners on the wing, reported The New York Post.

The British man was travelling to New York City from Manchester, UK, when he noticed the missing detail. Alarmed, he notified cabin crew.

“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 agency.

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

After notifying the flight attendant, who then brought the issue to the pilot’s notice, engineers were called to examine the Virgin Atlantic aircraft. Footage that has emerged online shows them examining the wing of the Airbus A330 aircraft.

Hardy claims that airline staff and the engineer repeatedly told him there was nothing wrong with the aircraft. However, he remained anxious, especially after remembering the infamous Boeing door plug blow-out.

“At one point, the engineer removed one of the screws from a different hole and tried to put it in one of the holes [where the screws were missing] and it wouldn't go in,” he claimed.

Eventually, the flight to New York was cancelled and all the passengers disembarked. Hardy and his partner were able to fly out the next morning, but the delay meant they lost two days of their holiday. The entire experience, says Hardy, has left them with a ‘sour taste in his mouth.’

An Airbus Local Chief Wing Engineer for A330 told The Mirror that the four missing fasteners “did not impact the structural integrity of the wing, the load capability of the wing or the ability of the aircraft to operate safely.”