1 week ago
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A plane previously used by King Charles saw one of its windows fall out after having its frames melted by lights used to film an advert, a report has revealed.
Three windows on the Titan Airways Airbus fell out while the plane 14,000ft in the air last October, after it took off from London Stansted Airport on a flight to Florida.
Passengers noticed 'increased cabin noise' and a crew member discovered one window was visibly loose in its frame.
The aircraft returned to Stansted after 36 minutes and none of the 24 people on board were injured.
Staff discovered a total of three windows were missing after landing and also saw fresh impact damage on the plane's tail.
King Charles and Queen Camilla on the Titan Airways Airbus at Paris Orly in September 2023
Charles and Camilla arrives at Paris Orly on the Titan Airways Airbus in September 2023
The left side cabin window at the back of the overwing exit of the Airbus A321 while in flight
Floodlighting on the left of the aircraft is pictured. There were six sets of lights on both sides
The aircraft took off from London Stansted at 11.15am, climbing to a maximum of 14,504ft by 11.23am. The cabin altitude increased during this time to 1,536 ft. No pressurisation warnings were recorded during the flight, which landed back at Stansted Airport at 11.51am
The window assembly is held in compression against the window frame using a metal retainer, six eyebolts and six nuts. The outer pane, inner pane and rubber seal are all highlighted
Two cabin window assemblies were missing in their entirety, and the inner pane and seal from a third were displaced but partially retained. Windowpanes on the left side are pictured
The forward edge of a fourth window on the plane protruded from the left side of the fuselage
Charles and Queen Camilla had previously used the jet for a state visit to France last September.
Airbus A321 factfile
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also used it on official trips abroad.
The Airbus' acrylic windows had shrunk after being exposed to 'high intensity' lights used for filming an advert the previous day, analysts at Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) found.
Film technicians positioned high intensity halogen lights outside the airliner's fuselage as advertisers filmed some promotional footage on board the plane.
This light shone in through the windows to create a sunrise effect whilst advertisers filmed on board the plane the day before the incident.
The six lights used had a combined lighting capacity of 72,000 watts – more than seven hundred times greater than a household light bulb.
The AAIB report - first published in the Daily Telegraph - said: 'The lights were first shone on the right side of the aircraft for approximately five and a half hours, with the light focused on the cabin windows just aft of the overwing exits.
'The lights were then moved to the left side of the aircraft where they illuminated a similar area on the left side for approximately four hours.'
According to data from a light manufacturer, surfaces that are six metres away could see temperatures rise by as much as 147F (64C).
On the Airbus that day, technicians placed the lights between six and nine metres away.
Removal of the cabin lining inside the passenger cabin revealed the window retainers were in good condition and correctly installed - despite the missing and dislodged windowpanes
The foam ring material on the back of the cabin liners was found to be melted in the areas adjacent to the windows that were damaged or missing, according to the AAIB report
The AAIB investigation also revealed that the inner windowpane that was loosely retained after the aircraft landed was found to be shrunk and deformed around its periphery
A serviceable window assembly (top) and the protruding assembly (bottom) are displayed
Reconstructed remains of the shattered windowpane are pictured. A vent hole in one of the broken parts showed that the shattered remains were from an inner windowpane
Photographs of the filming showed that the lights were approximately 6 to 9m from the window areas where damage occurred. This graphic shows the approximate distance
The AAIB report stated that typical spectral power distribution for a halogen bulb shows that most of the energy is in the infrared (IR) wavelengths. Energy from the sun is filtered by the atmosphere, dust and humidity, and mostly arrives at lower altitudes in the visible spectrum
Windows on airliners have two panes - a tough outer pane designed to withstand extreme temperatures and pressures, and an inner 'scratch pane' on the passenger side.
All the scratch panes remained in place during the flight, meaning there was' no direct unrestricted aperture between the passenger cabin and the outside air', the AAIB said.
The AAIB has not disclosed who the advertiser was and there is no suggestion in their report that any Airbus manufacturing defect was to blame for the airliner's windows melting.
A Titan Airways spokesman said: 'We would like to thank the members of the AAIB team for their extremely thorough and professional investigation.
'The aviation industry as a whole will benefit from the lessons learnt from this event.
'We are also pleased to hear that our colleagues at Airbus will be circulating further information to its worldwide customer base, highlighting the potential damage that can be caused by high-intensity lighting.
PREVIOUS INCIDENT 1 - Lighting arrangement during a previous filming event where an Airbus A321 sustained cabin window damage during a filming event outdoors. Spotlights were positioned just inboard of the engines, approximately 1.5 to 1.8 m from the cabin windows
PREVIOUS INCIDENT 1 - Thermal damage suffered by an outer windowpane on an Airbus A321
PREVIOUS INCIDENT 2 - One operator told the AAIB that six cabin windows were damaged on a Boeing 787 during a filming event inside a hangar. The windows were illuminated using three 2,000W lights positioned on mobile platforms outside the aircraft. The windows suffered significant deformation and one had a hole burned through the windowpanes, as shown above
'We are also grateful to all of our crew members onboard, whose swift and professional handling of the incident was exemplary.'
While it was used for royal and Government flights, the airliner was registered G-GBNI and was painted white with a Union flag logo on the tail.
The Airbus was re-registered G-OATW and repainted in a black colour scheme, after the Government charter ended.
For official trips by ministers and members of the Royal Family, the Government regularly charters commercial airliners.
* Do you know what advert was being filmed? Please email: [email protected] *
