Virgin A333 over Atlantic on Nov 4th 2012, fracture of spoiler

Last Update: November 5, 2012 / 13:21:46 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 4, 2012

Classification
Incident

Airline
Virgin Atlantic

Flight number
VS-76

Departure
Orlando, United States

Destination
Manchester, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
G-VKSS

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300

ICAO Type Designator
A333

A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330-300, registration G-VKSS performing flight VS-76 (Dep Nov 3rd) from Orlando,FL (USA) to Manchester,EN (UK) with 330 people on board, was enroute at FL390 over the Atlantic when a loud bang was heard on the aircraft without any recogniseable reason at first. The crew therefore continued the flight, but later needed to declare PAN reporting handling problems. The crew decided to divert to Shannon, upon contacting Shannon Approach the crew requested right hand wide turns and an extended period of time at 5000 feet to read the checklists, configure the aircraft and verify aircraft handling. Following the checks the crew reported they did not expect any difficulties for landing and proceeded for a safe landing on runway 24 at a rather normal speed and taxied to the apron with emergency services following the aircraft to the stand to check the brakes.

Passengers reported the captain announced some time after the bang, that they had a technical problem and vibrations may be felt throughout the aircraft. Later the crew indicated a spoiler had fractured and they were burning more fuel than normal as a result.

The passengers were taken to hotels over night. The incident aircraft was repaired and reached Manchester the following day with a delay of 28 hours.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 4, 2012

Classification
Incident

Airline
Virgin Atlantic

Flight number
VS-76

Departure
Orlando, United States

Destination
Manchester, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
G-VKSS

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300

ICAO Type Designator
A333

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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