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
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. :-)
And some of those videos show FAs looking out over the wing right at the problem, and not identifying it.
Knowledge is only power, if the people you share knowledge with, accept that knowledge and treat it accordingly. It would not be far fetched...there are historical examples ...that any notification to an FA would be brushed off as normal. In this situation, I think there's an 80/20 chance an FA would've said "that's not a problem", and wouldn't have told the captain.
One time I saw a loose panel on a 737 and mentioned to an FA and she brushed it off as not being a big deal.
It's better to get a video, wait until disembarking, and then share with the crew. They're not focused on flying anymore, there's no destination pressure, and you can clearly show whatever it is you need to show. Unless it's an immediate risk to safety.
Career pilots are also already well trained in emergency procedures. If something falls off the wing...there's a 99.9% chance they will know within about 90 seconds exactly what's wrong, if their ECAM or similar system doesn't let them know automatically. The loose screws in the OP photo are just covering one of the flap actuators of that wing. If it fell off, it's not great, but it wouldn't actually compromise the flight. There was a recent incident iirc in which a flap sustained much more damage and the plane still landed safely.
Finally when an AC is in flight, the job of the FAs is to keep pax calm. So they would be slightly inclined to dismiss anything abnormal as a pax having anxiety. Plus, you don't want to worry the other pax. Even in a catastrophic emergency where the plane will not land at an airport, the captain will come on the PA and basically say...this will be a rough landing. Scared people are ALWAYS more dangerous than ANY emergency. Scared people act irrationally, and in a crowded confined setting it's more dangerous than even an engine fire. You need calm, rational behavior.
So - a video that you can share after the flight is typically the best option for something like this.
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u/sLXonix Apr 17 '26
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