Sri Lankan Airlines passengers revolted at London-Heathrow when the airline ushered the travelers onto an Airbus A340 with a broken winglet.
The winglet had been damaged in an on-ground collision with a British Airways 747 at the airport the previous day. The 747 fared far worse, as the photo above actually shows. (The visible damage in the photo (via the Daily Mail) was to the BA plane. The Sri Lankan A340 “won,” but the winglet had to be removed.)
And though the A340’s winglet was missing, the plane was apparently safe to fly. The extensions are optional, after all. They help save fuel, but they’re not necessary, per se.
But even so, I’m sure I’d be none too pleased if I knew my plane had just sliced and diced another jumbo. Why wouldn’t the airline arrange for another aircraft to take us to the destination? A plane that doesn’t need drastic maintenance, maybe?
Maybe they should have used the airline-grade duct tape. That oughta fix it.
So, the question goes to you. If your plane’s wings were damaged from a crash the previous day, would you take your seat, buckle up, and prepare for takeoff? Or would you revolt and stay as far from the jetway as you could? Vote below!
(via OnlineTravelReview)
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November 6th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Given that it was Sri Lankan Air Lines, this was probably their only plane on this side of the planet they could get back home. Given the tremendous expense of flying an empty plane half way around the world, combined with the fact that theirs was in fact still flyable, one could conceivably understand why they wanted to go ahead with the flight. Having said that, given the general public’s tremendous fear of flying, they should have known better and just eaten the cost and gotten a new plane for the trip. Short of that they could have canceled the flight for 24 hours for a thorough maintenance check; I’m sure no one would mind.
November 6th, 2007 at 6:56 am
To be honest, if the winglet had been removed and that was the only damage to the a/c what would be the problem? I’d hope that a mantaince team at LHR would have given the Sri Lankan a/c a good once over to check for any aditional damage. I’d fly on it.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:18 am
C’mon, where’s the harm? The plane has another wing!
November 6th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Wow,
It’s amazing how ignorant your readers are that voted in this poll! A winglet is a winglet, it has NOTHING to do with the plane flying, it only reduces the wingtip vortexes thus increasing efficiency. Do these voters THINK (maybe that’s the key word here) that an unsafe airplane would be allowed to fly by the aviation authorities?
November 6th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
It’s not the physics of whether or not it can fly. I’m sure it can fly. But it’s more about the doubt that it puts in people’s minds.
We all know that flying is the safest way to travel statistically. But at the same time, hearing that your plane was in a collision AND a piece is missing is NOT going to make you feel “good” getting on the plane. Even I would start to wonder what other piece is “loose” or might “fall off” during flight even though I know, as a frequent flyer, that I’m sure it gets a good inspection before it’s allowed to take off.
On top of it all, hearing that your plane collided with another plane makes you wonder just what happened? Pilot error? Tower error? Either way, irrational or not, it puts some doubt and possibly even fear in most people’s minds I think.
Regardless of the effect of the missing piece on whether it’s safe to fly or not, as a passenger about to go up 30,000′, it’ll sure be nice to get on an intact plane…
November 6th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I studied Aerospace Engineering in College and sure, I’d fly on an airoplane without a winglet. Though I’d probably want to be compensated in some way (free return ticket or air miles?) for my iron stomach and trust.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:46 am
I gotta go with Tim on this one. It has very little to do with the mechanics of the whole operation. First of all, while some of us may know the signifigance of a winglet. Most people don’t. I would have reservations on that flight, every bump in the air, every little bit of turbulence may send panick to its customers. But alas, dollars and cents rule the day.