Virgin Atlantic Flight Canceled, Passengers Spot Missing Screws on Wing

A Virgin Atlantic flight that was supposed to go away the UK by no means took off after passengers noticed a possible security hazard … which makes up the nuts and bolts of this story.

Here’s the deal … final week, this VA airplane that was as a result of depart from Manchester to New York — however earlier than it might even get on the runway, eagle-eyed friends onboard observed one thing was amiss on one of many wings outdoors, they usually flagged it to the employees.

Basically, they thought they noticed some screws lacking — and because it seems, there have been, the truth is, 4 lacking fasteners that wanted to be attended to by a upkeep employee.

That’s the video you are seeing right here … the man is actually drilling within the fasteners/bolts that had apparently fallen off — and as you possibly can think about, everybody onboard was shocked by this obvious oversight. Now, by way of the protection of all this … VA insists no one was in danger.

An Airbus rep clarified to TMZ Monday that the lacking fasteners/bolts had been truly a part of a panel on the airplane that solely affected the aerodynamic ranges of that particular piece — and did NOT have any influence on the integrity of the plane at massive.

Virgin Atlantic tells us, “The VS127 from Manchester to New York JFK on 15 January, operating on an Airbus A330, was canceled to provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance checks, which allowed our team the maximum time to complete their inspections. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority and this was not compromised at any point.”

The Airbus firm that really handles the airplane itself tells us there are literally 119 fasteners on this a part of the airplane — and notes the 4 lacking ones would not have made the flight any extra harmful … with that stated, they made certain it underwent further upkeep simply to be secure — they usually additionally word the fasteners had been changed.