Originally Posted by
atprider
I flew last night on an Airbus type on a UK domestic flight. The aircraft had one winglet; the other wing had the winglet removed with what appeared to be gaffer tape covering where the winglet should have been attached.
Are you sure it was missing at the start of the pushback ?
Can an aircraft be dispatched with this defect for unlimited flying ? And does it have any performance impact on the aircraft operation?
I would expect a small performance (fuel burn) penalty, probably not significant on a UK domestic route.
But when Aer Lingus had an A333 wingtip knocked off at SFO just over a year ago (by a tug driver), they positioned the aircraft back to DUB empty.