Plane Takes Off With Its Wing Tip Missing

Part of one of the wing tips lies on the runwayAn airline crew faced a rebellion when they told passengers they were going to fly on a jet that had lost its wing tip in a runway crash.

The SriLankan Airlines customers had been on the Airbus A340 a day earlier when it sliced through a wing of a stationary British Airways 747 at Heathrow, delaying departure by 24 hours.

So they were amazed to be boarding the same plane next day for the ten-hour flight to Colombo.

When cabin crew then admitted there was still a 5ft wing tip missing, there was "a minor revolt" as seven passengers demanded to be let off the aircraft.

A further two-hour delay followed as their baggage was removed before the aircraft could take off.

SriLankan Airlines insisted there was no danger in flying without a wing tip. It added: "They are purely for aerodynamics and to keep fuel costs to a minimum. There is no impact on safety at all. Safety is our absolute priority."

Source: This Is London
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Aerodynamics might be important to an airplane.What do you expect, from a country thats still a couple of hundred years away from toilet paper?
Anonymous said…
SriLankan Airlines insisted there was no danger in flying without a wing tip. It added: "They are purely for aerodynamics and to keep fuel costs to a minimum. There is no impact on safety at all. Safety is our absolute priority."


And the Titanic wasn't supposed to sink either.
Anonymous said…
The airline is correct that is keeps fuel costs lower. The wing tips keep a vortex from forming. This vortex would actually be pushing down on the end of the wing.

Good site for an explanation:
http://www.aviationpartners.com/bw_technology.html
Anonymous said…
As I pilot, I would never put passengers at a risk like that. However, I would be willing to test fly a plane with a missing wingtip if maintenance said it hadn't compromised the wing's integrity.
I can back up the fact that wing tips are indeed not required. That doesn't mean you can just rip one of them off and not have some effect. It might be just a little leaning to the left, and no more disturbance than a light crosswind.
Anonymous said…
they actually can run simulations and determine if the plane is still airworthy. you think they want the bad press from a plane crash? even taking the human element out it's not cost effective.
Anonymous said…
This is so insane it's a joke. An aircraft mechanic told me pilots in aircraft from 3rd world countries wont let mechanics near their plane because if the mechanic sees something obviously wrong (like 5 feet of the wing missing!) They will ground the plane and fix it. Safety costs too much money, rofl!
Anonymous said…
I'm an AME (aircraft mechanic). There is no way the checks required to determine that no structural damage occurred to the rest of the wing or its attachment at the fuselage could have been carried out in the time between flights. It seems like someone pulled that "safe to fly" determination out of their ass. That wing may have in fact been no real threat to safety but without question the wing tip wasn't designed to take those kind of impact loads. This airline should be shut down. I guarantee they were making a domestic run.
originalseven said…
Um...but thats a B.A 747.
Anonymous said…
Thats not nice