You never think one of the pre-flight takeoff rules is going to be "Check and see if all the windows are in place," but maybe you should check next time you're up in the skies, just to be sure:
A plane previously used by Britain's King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was forced to turn around after reaching an altitude of 14,500 feet when crew members realized two of its windows were missing.
The Airbus A321 took off from London Stansted Airport for Orlando on Oct. 4 with windows that were damaged by high-powered lights used during a film shoot the day before, The Independent reported.
The plane "was carrying 11 crew members and nine passengers who were employees of airline and the US-based luxury tour company."
A report from the British government's Air Accident Investigations Branch showed the damage stemming from the "high-powered lights:"
Planes have outer windowpanes and inner windowpanes with seals that allow the pressure in the plane to remain constant. With the outer panes and the seals gone, it wouldn't take much to cause, well...
The AAIB noted that "the flight was concluded uneventfully" after discovering the damage, but that "a different level of damage by the same means might have resulted in more serious consequences, especially if window integrity was lost at higher differential pressure."
They got lucky on this one!
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