"Like" for the thread title lol(stealing headline style from The Onion)
A flight was canceled minutes before takeoff after a passenger noticed bolts missing from the wing
The Airbus A330 operated by Virgin Atlantic was not unsafe to fly, the airline said, but the flight was canceled for precautionary reasons.www.yahoo.com
Considering the size of an airliner and the fact that the missing fasteners would have to be on the top of the wing to be seen by a passenger, a preflight that was thorough enough to find them would probably take hours.
Awesome thread title.(stealing headline style from The Onion)
A flight was canceled minutes before takeoff after a passenger noticed bolts missing from the wing
The Airbus A330 operated by Virgin Atlantic was not unsafe to fly, the airline said, but the flight was canceled for precautionary reasons.
So nobody preflight the top of the wing?
For a lot of major airline airplanes, the top of the wings cannot be SEEN by the flight crew. For a lot of things in the Majors world, it is a shared responsibility between the flight crew and other departments.
Exactly. I didn’t say the flight crew was to blame.
FIFY
As a margin of safety, makes sense. But the idea (I hope) is to get it back up to 119 to keep the safety as soon as it is noticed.They designed it with 119 fasteners so that you could lose 4 and still be safe.
Depends on what you mean by preflight. I was talking about the walk-around before each flight. In that situation, verifying that there were no missing fasteners anywhere on an airliner between each flight would put an end to quick-turns, I would imagine.
Seems like slowing down quick turns would be preferable to cancellations due to passengers noting airworthiness issues that the airline didn’t. But my opinions don’t always jive with management’s.
Inspections that were detailed enough to catch missing fasteners anywhere on an airliner, if conducted between each flight, would increase the amount of time that each plane spent on the ground to such a degree that the number of planes the airlines had to buy and maintain would have to go up. That cost and the increased labor cost would result in significantly higher ticket prices.
Like I said, my opinions don’t necessarily match those of management.
Nor the desire of the passengers for affordable air travel.
As @Bell206 indicated, there are processes to determine whether the airplane can be flown with fasteners or panels missing, and that is part of “airworthiness.” I am really saying that airlines should fly airworthy airplanes.
wouldn't that be under a CDL not an MEL? it not to often i can get one on you bell, even something that small......
Ha. You're most likely correct for an Airbus product. However, if I had used "CDL" vs MEL, your average PoA'r would most likely have derailed the thread wondering what a "commercial drivers license" has to do with missing screws on an aircraft.
He did say “or other reference.”
actually, i have never seen even a CDL used for that on the bus if its a bad nutplate, rivnut ect it is mostly written up as temporary repair in accordance with MM section......Ha. You're most likely correct for an Airbus product. However, if I had used "CDL" vs MEL, your average PoA'r would most likely have derailed the thread wondering what a "commercial drivers license" has to do with missing screws on an aircraft.
On another forum someone posted an example of a 320 CDL for panel screws, example below. I've only used a CDL twice years ago on an older 737. Kind of wish we had CDLs for other aircraft as well. Definitely an interesting document.
im going to take a look at the 320 CDL just to see what there is in there about missing screws.
You can very well expect that all work was properly complied with at its last mx event to include those 4 screws being installed. But you have to put this into context. Part 121 aircraft can fly for an extended periods (days/week) without anyone looking over the entire aircraft depending on the maintenance program. And the pilot walk arounds are only done from the ground in the span of a regular turnaround at the gate.
