Plane takes off with missing window panes, only discovered at 10,000 feet

globalnews.ca:

A plane that took off from London Stansted Airport in the U.K. was forced to turn around after only half an hour in the air after a crew member noticed one of the cabin windows was damaged.

When the plane landed back at Stansted, the crew found that two of the plane’s window panes were completely missing and two others were dislodged, according to an incident report published late last week by the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch. A day before the flight, the aircraft had been used as a film set.

The incident occurred on Oct. 4, when the Airbus A321 plane was set to start a multi-day charter. The first leg was a flight to Orlando International Airport, with 11 crew members and nine passengers on board, “who were all employees of the tour operator or aircraft operating company.”

Shortly after takeoff, several passengers recalled that “the aircraft cabin seemed noisier and colder than they were used to.”

As the plane climbed to 10,000 feet, and the seatbelt sign was switched off, one of the crew members went to investigate the source of the noise.

His attention was drawn to a window on the rear left side of the plane and he noticed “that the window seal was flapping in the airflow and the windowpane appeared to have slipped down,” the incident report reads.

“He described the cabin noise as ‘loud enough to damage your hearing,'” the report adds.

The crew member notified the pilots, who had noticed “no abnormal indications on the flight deck.” The plane’s pressurization system was operating normally throughout the flight.

The flight’s engineer and third pilot investigated the damaged window and determined the aircraft should return to Stanstead Airport. At an elevation of about 14,000 feet, the plane turned around