There’s a big hullabaloo going on in airline land this week with American Airlines, again about a trans-Atlantic flight that many are saying shouldn’t have happened. Last time it was because they flew a pretty empty plane across the pond. This time the problem was a flight from Dallas to Paris that went with an exterior panel missing from the body of the plane.
The pictures (click that second link above) are pretty impressive, but more impressive is the back and forth cat fight going on between the pilots and the flight attendants over whether the pilot was acting safely in his decision to make the trip without inspecting the plane for damage following a “loud boom” and a strong vibration shortly after takeoff. It turns out that the plane made the flight safely and with virtually no difference in fuel burn versus what was expected, so the aerodynamics of the plane weren’t really affected. That doesn’t mean it was definitely safe, but it does add to the intrigue of the situation.
Anyways, reading the back and forth between the pilots and FAs on the comments section of the story linked above is really funny. “I’m never flying with that pilot again,” against “The pilot did nothing wrong,” is lots of fun.
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