A plane previously used by Britain’s King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to turn around after reaching an altitude of 14,500 feet when crew members realized it was missing two of its windows.
The Airbus A321 took off from London Stansted Airport bound for Orlando on October 4 with windows damaged by high-powered lights used during filming of a film the previous day, the Independent reported.
The Titan Airways plane was carrying 11 crew members and nine passengers who were employees of the airline and U.S.-based luxury travel company TCS World Travel, according to an incident report from the Titan Airways Investigations Division. Air accidents.
A crew member noticed after takeoff that the seal around one of the windows was “waving” and that the noise in the cabin was “loud enough to damage his hearing,” according to the agency.
The team reportedly discovered that two sets of windows were missing (the inner and outer panels and the rubber seals) and that only the plastic panels remained in place.
A plane with 20 people on board took off on a flight from London to Orlando without two windows and reached 10,000 feet before anyone noticed.AAIB
The pilots stopped climbing and slowed as the plane stopped its transcontinental journey and headed back to London. There were “no abnormal indications” in the cabin and the cabin remained pressurized “normally,” the AAIB said.
The terrifying incident occurred a day after the plane was used for filming and powerful lights were installed nearby to “give the illusion of a sunrise,” according to investigators.
The lights were on on the right side of the plane for more than five hours and on the left for four hours, the AAIB said, adding that they were designed to be used no closer than 32 feet from an object, but were between 20 and 30 feet away. feet of the windows.
The team discovered that the inner and outer panels and rubber seals were missing, with only the plastic panels remaining in place.AAIB
Close examination revealed that the foam used to hold the components in place had melted due to high temperatures or was missing entirely.
The damaged windows were “deformed and shrunken.”[en]” according to the AAIB.
“While in this case the damage became evident around FL100 (10,000 feet) and the flight concluded without incident, a different level of damage by the same means could have had more serious consequences, especially if the integrity of the window was lost. at a higher differential. pressure,” the AAIB said.
The aircraft was carrying 11 crew members and nine passengers who were employees of the airline.AAIB
The same plane had been used by King Charles and Queen Camilla on their recent state visit to France, The Sun reported.
It had also reportedly been used by Sunak and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly before becoming available for private services, according to the outlet.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn