A flight to Orlando from the UK’s Stansted Airport has had to turn back after just 36 minutes, after a crew member discovered “substantial damage” to the aircraft’s windows. The plane had been used for filming the previous day and the problem occurred, according to an official investigation, due to intense heat from lighting equipment.
“Loud enough to damage your hearing”
The Titan Airways Airbus A321-200N took off on October 4, 2023, and reached an altitude of around 14,500 feet (4,400 metres) before crew became aware of noise in the cabin. Upon investigation, a crew member found the seal around one window “flapping” at which point a decision was made to turn back to Stansted. The noise was “loud enough to damage your hearing” according to a summary of the incident by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).
The trip was a “repositioning” flight, carrying 11 crew and 9 other staff members who needed to make their way to the next flights on their work schedule. As a result, Titan did not request any special assistance and followed normal operating procedures for the U-turn. It later carried out an internal investigation and its findings, confirmed by the AAIB, included that three windows were in fact missing or damaged.
Flood lights to imitate sunrise
The AAIB released a special bulletin last week, explaining that the day prior to departure the aircraft had been used for ground filming “during which external lights had been shone through the cabin windows to give the illusion of a sunrise.” The report went on to note the aircraft had been exposed to the lights and therefore “elevated temperatures” for between four and five and half hours. Stills capturing the filming process reveal six sets of floodlights on both sides of the aircraft focused “just aft of the overwing exits”.
Thermal damage
The floodlights that the report blames for the damaged windows were probably “positioned closer than 10 meters,” the AAIB noted, adding that the issue could have had a far graver outcome.
In chilling words, the investigators warned the same cause could have resulted in “a different level of damage” that “might have resulted in more serious consequences, especially if window integrity had been lost at a higher pressure,” they said.
Loss of pressure
With window integrity lost at high pressure would come the probability of depressurisation, or the reduction of atmospheric pressure inside the cabin. In so-called “rapid depressurisation” the loss of pressure occurs at a rate greater than 7000 feet per minute. It might be accompanied with a loud “bang” and air inside the cabin could fog. While the nightmare scenario of someone being sucked out of the plane is unlikely, passengers and crew would suffer low blood oxygen, or hypoxia, very quickly, so a rapid descent to a breathable altitude is required immediately.
“Gradrual decompression”, while less dramatic, is more insidious. Loss of consciousness will appear slowly among flyers, making it potentially more dangerous.
The heat damage to the Airbus’s windows could have resulted in either of these types of depressurisation, not only if the damage had been worse, but simply different, or not discovered as early.
