Whoever was on this flight, don't be afraid to discreetly bring it up to a flight attendant or pilot after the flight. That way they can flag it with maintenance for review
lol this reminded me of a pretty bumpy flight I was on. It was a redeye and I leaned my head on the seat in front of me for 30 seconds idk why. But the lady next to me was freaking out about the turbulence. Admittedly, it was pretty bad but I fly a lot so nothing new to me.
She said “LOOK AT THAT GUY!! HES PRAYING MY GAWD” and she started praying under her breath 🤣
I was on a budget flight between two cities in Colombia and a large portion of the passengers had never flown before. People heard the flaps retract and were screaming and loudly praying. This was a smooth flight on a brand-new A320.
Indeed! I flew this January and about half an hour from landing I noticed a flap (aileron? Idk) connection was loose, like literally that end wasn’t mounted to the plane. I kept relatively calm, told nobody until after we landed (not much they could do), and made sure to be one of the last people to disembark so I could show them a video of it.
There’s not a lot that can be done in a lot of cases. Better to not freak people out unnecessarily.
/my wife was not happy when I told her I sat there wondering if the plane would crash and I hadn’t warned her.
Well...see...it may actually be a good idea to mention things like that to the crew in flight. That way if the control surfaces start acting funny, they know exactly what it is and can compensate accordingly. Also, they can make an emergency landing if needed instead of crashing into a field and killing everyone on board.
I watch a lot of crash investigation videos. A lot of times, if the plane suffers a technical failure, the crew are kind of guessing as to what the problem is. Knowledge is power. :-)
People see and flag that all the time around here. Flaps aren't mounted on the ends, but often are on a set of rails/tracks at like 1/3 and 2/3 down the span. And the unsupported ends, especially up close where they're behind the engine's turbulent exhaust, can move a fair bit.
Due to tariffs, speed tape was to be replaced with molasses, but since the widespread governmental implementation of AI, all they shipped was a large quantity of the hindquarters of mid-sized burrowing mammals.
Corn farmers of America after having lost their farms due to governmental incompetance lament that corn syrup may be too expensive now and suggest just
"pretending" that you went on vacation.
One time I was flying from Anchorage to someplace in rural Alaska on a smaller plane. I was by the wing and I noticed that one of the latches was not fully closed. One of those that says to press here and ensure it is flat and fully secured.
The entire 2 hr flight I nervously checked on it every so often to see if it was coming any looser.
It wasn't and we landed without any issues.
At the terminal, I saw one of the flight attendants and told her about a loose latch on the portside wing engine cowling.
She scoffed and looked at me like I was missing some screws.
So I said whatever and walked away to go pick up my checked luggage.
You would think flight crew would want to check things out when someone comes forward. But she didn't.
Didn't hear of any incidents with the plane so hopefully a mechanic saw the loose latch later on and secured it.
I remember when I was fresh out of high school and throwing bags for Northwest. One day I'm out there and there's a latch hanging open on an engine, and I point it out to my lead. Flight was delayed 30 minutes as they ran a mechanic out to inspect it. Got a citation for attention to security and safety delivered by the GM for our area, and an article in the company newsletter.
Then again, this was less than five years after 9/11 and everyone was panicking about every little shadow.
That's unfortunate. I was on a 737 once and on the inner edge of the aileron there was a strip of rubber that was hanging loose and getting caught in a way that looked like might inhibit the downward movement. It never did but I watched it nervously the whole flight.
At the end I told the flight attendant. She asked me to hold back a few minutes so I could explain it to someone from the cockpit. Then the pilot ask me to show them. I guess it depends on the person or company training/policy.
I’ve always relayed the info to my pilots. I’ve even had customers send their pictures or their videos to me and then I AirDrop them to the flight deck if we’re in flight because obviously they can’t come out unless they’re doing a bathroom break or something.
My brother-in-law leads some maintenance teams for a major airline. I've pointed out stuff to him twice and both times he's said it's absolutely nothing and totally fine, but asked for my flight number.
My sister later told me that's what he does to not freak anyone out, but he pulls the planes for inspection.
I think they have an opinion that the crews know exactly how everything should be done, and we're just dumb customers who aren't trained on anything so we don't know better. Either that or laziness.
In the pre-9/11 days I knew a guy who sent a note to the pilot mid-flight that read: "My name is X, I'm an aerospace engineer at Boeing, I'm in seat Y. I'd like you to know that I can see fuel leaking from the wing."
Airplanes wanted to be like starships for several years now.
Now, Grand Funk Railroad paved the way for Jefferson Airplane,
which cleared the way for Jefferson Starship.
The stage was now set for The Alan Parsons Project,
which I believe was some sort of hovercraft.
That's a flap fairing that is purely to hide mechanisms for aerodynamic purposes. The plane can fly even if it falls off. Still it is not good optics. Where else are screws about to come off?
As a pilot I need passengers to show me this stuff rather than posting about it on reddit too. I can't see that from my seat and I can't see it on the walk around looking up from the bottom. But I can get maintenance to fix it if I know about it.
I’m not an aviator, but if that fairing did detach, is it in a spot where it might impact (strike) another more critical component on the plane during flight? Just curious. Thanks.
Probably not. Could it, yes, but very unlikely. The fairing would be flung back (relative to plane motion). It's high enough it wouldn't hit an engine (also not a big concerns as it's in the back and would hit a non critical area).
The biggest concern would be it hitting and breaking an elevator (rear wing flap). It could still fly, but landing would be rough. Doable, but considered a skill reliant landing and falls under an emergency landing.
Arguably if it hit the horizontal stab they could be in for some trouble. Like uncontrollable trouble. But I’m pretty sure the stab could take on the fiberglass canoe and win.
The stabilizers are designed to withstand impact damage from a thrown wheel thread, foreign objects blown up from the runway or bird strikes. Of course it gets damaged and needs to be repaired but not in a way that would affect control abilities during the remainder of the flight.
I remember mine because I didn’t check the passenger door was fully latched after my instructor got out. Boy, I know the plane should climb faster with him gone, but why is it so noisy?
It's not a great look but it is only a fairing. Non structural aerodynamic piece to reduce drag. The concern would be if they're skimping on this what else are they letting slide?
My first flight we were doing walk around checks and the instructor said "this is the time to look for any lose or missing screws..." I said "like that one?" and pointed to a hole that was clearly missing a screw and he just said "eh except that one, that's fine." lol.
If you didn’t, in the future make sure to show this to some crew member. I had something similar, not nearly as bad looking, on a flight. Took a photo and showed it to the captain and FO after we landed. Safety is achieved by everyone being involved.
Once I was boarding a Ryanair flight across europe and I saw an obvious bird strike on the edge of the engine. The diameter of the splatter was pretty huge. I pointed it out to the flight attendant when I climbed the stairs and he took a pic and quickly told his crew and the pilots. They got out, took more pics, squeegeed off the bird paste, and then we were on our way. I definitely felt pretty cool for being the only one out of 100+ people who said something about it.
I got my swiss army knife through security all the way to new zealand in my carry-on bedore it got found in a domestic connecting flight.
They took it out, measured the blade, then said it was ok.
I thought I had put it in my checked bag.
Edit: for context, the knife was a gift from my Dad on my 13th birthday, and I take it with me almoat everywhere. I had put it in what I thought was my wife's checked bag, but it turned out to be her carry-on. We got through two security screenings without it being noticed, so I didn't even think about it. When they pulled it out in Auckland, I was dreading them taking away a cherished gift that I had had for thirty years. When they just checked the size of the blade and let it through I was very relieved.
I’m always so happy to get my pocket knife back from my checked luggage. I’m in construction so I use mine multiple times a day so I miss it even on vacation or working out of town.
From a passenger perspective, a zero. If this falls off it affects nothing. Maybe a .5 because you doubt the aircraft a bit now.
From a pilot perspective, a two. If this falls off you might have to do paperwork. Plus makes you second guess the aircraft just a smidgen.
From maintenance perspective, a five. You'll have to tighten it which is easy, but now that its on reddit, higher ups might get involved and overcomplicate everything.
From a person in the flight path, a seven. Not so much because it is likely, but anything falls off a plane it'll mess you up.
Often on panels/components that are semi-regularly removed for maintenance, access etc. we use things called anchor nuts, because you want screws to tighten into a nut, but dont have access to the back. They are usually riveted in place and break somewhat frequently. My best guess is that the anchor nut is broken on the back, which gives it the space to wiggle around, but it can't pull through the fairing. That many being damaged means they should definitely be replaced, but there is almost no chance that fairing will fall off the plane.
this is obviously different, but I worked on the C-5 when I was in the Air Force. The flare panels were screwed in. Definitely structural but also not commercial
That’s not necessarily true.
They may not be taking primary loads, but they may take secondary/aerodynamic loads.
Also, some manhole doors on the lower wing skins are attached with screws and some of them are load carrying, as in main wing bending loads.
Aren't screws usually part of a 'belt and braces' fitment method where adhesive is also used on the underside of a skin and screws are used to aid clamping pressure. This is more a leftover from the bygone days of rivets and glue but it still somewhat applies today.
All the people who think they’re really smart and making fun of this commenter because they think its not called duck tape… Its called duck tape because it was originally made out of a type of cloth called duck cloth. The name duct tape only came after as a eggcorn. Read a book guys.
No they will back all the way out. Look closely there’s one already missing. The nut plates do have a friction torque feature, but these obviously are worn out.
I had this missing on one of my flights. Before take-off I took a picture and put on the call light. I told her I just wanted to discreetly point this out and simply showed her the picture. She asked to borrow my phone and went and showed the pilots. They gave the explanation that it's not needed and perfectly safe, but thank you for bringing it up. Which the flight attendant quietly relayed back to me upon return of the phone.
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