A passenger on a charter flight from the United Kingdom to Florida noticed the plane was missing a window when the airliner was several thousand feet in the air, according to investigators. The plane turned around and returned safely to England with no injuries to anyone on board on the flight in early October.
Investigators later discovered that the Airbus A321 had two outer window panes missing and another outer window and an inner pane detached, according to a report released Nov. 3 by Britain’s Air Accident Investigation Branch.
According to the agency’s report, the plane’s cabin did not lose pressure during the flight.
The charter flight was traveling from London Stansted Airport to Orlando International Airport with eleven crew members and nine passengers on board. The aircraft was used for a multi-day charter and everyone on board worked for either the tour operator or the company operating the aircraft.
Several passengers told investigators that after takeoff, the cabin “seemed louder and colder than they were used to,” the report said.
When the flight reached an altitude of more than 10,000 feet, passengers were allowed to unbuckle their seatbelts. A man who walked to the back of the plane told investigators he noticed cabin noise getting louder and a window caught his attention.
A window pane is missing mid-flight from a window on an Airbus A321 aircraft en route from the United Kingdom to Orlando, Florida, October 4, 2023. Air Accident Investigation Branch
“He observed that the window seal was flapping in the airflow and the window pane appeared to be sliding down,” the report said. “He described the cabin noise as ‘loud enough to damage hearing’.”
The man alerted the crew and pilots. The aircraft reached an altitude of just over 14,500 feet before the pilots stopped climbing higher and eventually decided to return to Stansted.
According to the report, a film crew used the plane on the ground for hours the day before the flight and pointed high-powered lights at the plane’s windows.
“The windows appear to have suffered thermal damage and deformation due to elevated temperatures while lit for approximately four to five and a half hours during filming,” the report said.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
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Alex Sundby
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