Recently, I took a flight to Bordeaux with a well known airline... Just about to close the doors when the Captain came onto the public address system...'Sorry to tell you this folks but we are delayed due to a small technical issue - more information to follow shortly.'

Instantly, I knew that this would trigger fear in many of the nervous flyers on the flight (remember it is 1 in 5 people).  I looked around but no one was letting on.

Five minutes later, the Captain updated us...'Ladies and Gentlemen, the fault was detected by one of our engineers on the walkaround after we landed. There is a panel that has 7 screws to hold it in place (non essential panel by the way) and one of the screws was missing. We are consulting the manufactorers guidelines and our Standard Operating Procedures to see whether we need to A/Replace the screw B/ Are cleared to fly without it and replace later.  Once have the answer, I will update you...'

10 minutes later, the doors were shut and we were ready to take off. I must admit, I did not worry whether they had replaced it or we were going without it.  After all, the pilots are on the same flight as me!  As with all commercial aviation, there is always a back up, there is no single point of failure and it is always safety first!

Paul

Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash