US-Bound Flight Soars to Almost 15,000 Feet with Two Windows Missing, Returns to Airport Safely – News18

A Florida-bound flight which took off from London’s Stansted Airport in October returned to Essex airport in the UK after a crew member detected that two of the cabin window panes were missing. They also found that two windows were misaligned.

The flight was carrying 11 crew members and had nine passengers on board. The incident took place on October 4. Authorities said that it was caused due to high-powered lights which were used during a filming event, according to a report by the Independent.

The UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch said the incident could have had “more serious consequences”. The scratch pane, which is a piece of plastic used in aircraft windows to keep the passengers from touching the outer panes, were the only object between the inside and outside of the plane.

The aircraft had already soared to 14,500 feet when the crew detected the missing panes. It was used by US-based luxury travel business TCS World Travel and was operated by Titan Airways.

The damage to flight occurred due to a filming event where strong lights were placed near it to create an artificial sunrise. The lights remained positioned on the right side of the flight for several hours but they were placed too close to the flight.

The report said the foam found in the region around the missing or damaged windows either melted or was missing and the window panes had “shrunk and deformed”.

The passengers were all seated in the middle of the aircraft when the flight took off on October 4. Once the flight took off and the seatbelt sign was deactivated, a crew member approached the rear of the aircraft and found that the seal on one of the windows was flapping.

When he informed others, it was decided that the flight would return to the airport, where it landed safely. The cabin pressure remained normal despite the flight reaching 14,500 feet.