Boeing 777 loses wing panel over Osaka
 

A panel broke off from the wing of a AF/KLM airlines over Osaka flight to Amsterdam

A car was seriously damaged when part of a 777 wing landed on it in the Japanese city of Osaka.The panel, which weighed more than 4kg (9lb), fell from a KLM plane shortly after it departed Kansai International Airport on Saturday.It damaged the car's roof and smashed its rear window after falling more than 2,000 m. No one was injured in the incident but KLM has launched an investigation.The flight landed safely at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport later on Saturday.
The airline stated: "KLM regrets this incident and has immediately launched an investigation into the causes."
They added they were "in close contact with Japanese civil aviation authorities and Boeing".

BREAKING A piece of KLM Boeing 777-200 #KL868 fell into car shortly after takeoff from Osaka | AIRLIVE.net

http://www.airlive.net/wp-content/up...25-696x883.jpg

judging by the color pattern, it is a portion of the fuselage, and not the wing, as reported

In a different article they reported a body panel from the root/base of the right wing.

Not much damage. Was it even screwed on?

How can so many rivets just pop at once.

from the internet...

hence the confusion on the wing vs body...

https://i.imgur.com/xVr3agL.jpg

Looks like a screwed on panel to me.
Did the aircraft have some maintenance done whilst at Osaka?

Looking at the condition it could just be put back on again. And some people whine that they don't make things like they used to ... :)

I'm sure someone who already realised there is a plastic bag full of small bolts in his pocket is now pretty embarrassed.

Rivets v screws
 

I'm with you dixi188.

Could that possibly be the panel covering the wing escape slide? ANA had a 767 that lost two of those recently due to a malfunction of the escape slide inflation device. Maybe same issue here.

Let's see the "heavily damaged" car please. That panel looks intact. How much damage could it have made? I'm guessing it gyrocopted down.

It fell off a 777-200 ph-bqc which does not have a wing slide.

The car's right-rear window was broken from footage I saw on news channel (was taped over) Looked like it just glanced the rear window, not a scratch anywhere else on the car. Driver was an elderly chap and a bit shocked by it, of course.

Larger version of the photo here: https://i0.wp.com/www.transponder120...ze=1000%2C1268

The countersinks are clearly visible, so we're not looking at screws that have pulled though.

I'd be looking at when the panel was last removed (presumably on a maintenance check) and examining the possibility that the wrong size of fastener was used to reattach it.

At least it wasn't a windscreen ...

Leave it...:O

Was it correct to continue to Amsterdam? I assume here that the panel and aircraft were identified shortly after the event.

The bracket behind the panel cracked. Known issue on the 777. Panel was secured correctly.

So move along pls... nothing to see.

I doubt the crew was aware of the lost panel. By the time the identification of the panel went up the chain of command to the airline, the aircraft would have been well underway to its destination.

Why not? Mostly it's just a small performance and fuel penalty, not a significant reason to return/divert.

Of course specific information has to come from boeing, but any airline with this problem can gat that information quite easily if needed.

I'm not so sure about that. The screws are missing. And there is one hole in the light blue area that looks damaged - the one that would be at the top left on the plane, top right in the photo. I am suspecting that it was attached with only one or two screws.

Lets assume the panel was found as shown in the photos...

As DaveReidUK says no visible damage to the countersink holes.
Also no visible bolts or parts of them.
Which might suggest the panel had been temporarily fastened by maintenance with one or a few bolts or temporary fasteners.

Take the lady up. Vibration and force shears off the first. Then the second. Releasing the panel. Little visible damage.

Nothing to see ? I disagree with that. Shedding parts is always a serious issue. Both for plane strikes and striking anything else.
Have not heard about the bracket failing. What damage would you have seen on the panel if it did? You would expect at least part of that attached... With some bolts left... Or not?

Might be interesting to see the relevant shots of the aircraft on arrival.

The panel is made of nonmetal compound materials and is part of the base of the right wing.
Explains why it isnt bent....

https://i.imgur.com/6EtREAK.jpg

Lets assume this aircraft was assembled first, then painted. Also assume that if it was a lapped piece, (underneath another) the paint would reflect this.

I do no notice any paint circle of base primer that would indicate fasteners missing. I would think that if it was fastened, then painted, removing the fasteners would leave a ring of base primer. Looking at the image, it appears that some of the holes are painted.

https://i.imgur.com/x64FJtW.jpg


If a piece was lapped, again underneath would prevent paint of the lapped section, and would be evident.
What I note in this portion of the panel, is full paint, and no fastener holes at all.

https://i.imgur.com/saMErnS.jpg

I think that's a safe assumption. :O

But on the other hand, if the panel has been replaced at some time during the aircraft's 14 years in service, it's likely that it would have been painted before fitting, which would explain the paint in the countersinks.

:Dtrue..

a flexible piece that comes off inflight, with little/no visible damage or paint missing from the fastener holes....it could happen.

a 777 on the way to paint, showing the panel..

https://i.imgur.com/o5EQFFX.jpg

261 and Safety
 

Though not directly applicable to this specific, particular occurrence, nonetheless the facts - as they have emerged so far - do tend to suggest validity and importance to the question whether EU 261 and airline penalties for delays can compromise, and may in fact already be compromising, safety. That is, to the extent maintenance issues are not typically or textually considered to qualify as extraordinary circumstances such as to cancel the penalty obligation, this state of regulatory affairs tends to motivate, or create an incentive for, less rigor in maintenance practice. Not wanting to cause a delay on a flight, someone forgets (forgive the paltry pun) to turn the screws. Or the fasteners.

I think you are correct in that the pressures of EU 261, if any, aren't relevant to this incident.

The investigation will no doubt be able to determine when that panel was last disturbed, and it's very unlikely to have been on a turnround.

It may or may not be relevant that the aircraft in question had a couple of 3-day spells on the ground at AMS at the end and beginning of August, possibly on some sort of maintenance input.

That panel doesn't look like it's been on the aircraft for all that long.

If you look at this top row of holes and number them from left to right 1 through 7, then the first two holes (1 and 2) look a bigger than the others.

http://www.sbowden.org/misc/PANEL-777-KLM-2.png

The bush is behind hole #1, and you can see quite a bit of it. My guess would be that the there was a screw in hole #1 temporarily holding the panel in place - and that screw is still with the aircraft.
Hole #2 also looks a bit larger than the next 5, so maybe there was a screw there as well.

Or, perhaps holes 1 and 2 took bigger screws. But even at that, hole #1 looks pretty big.

I don't know. If I was told that I just lost 5 square feet of my fuselage paneling, I would worry about what else was left undone.

Lets say I am (very) close to the fire. No need to say more. Just want to clear KLM mx.

On the contrary. If your aim is to eliminate one of the (several) possible scenarios, you're going to have to come up with a lot more than that.

Aerospace safety investigations on accidents and in this case an incident ... are about finding out what happened, then why it happened, followed by devising and implementing ways to prevent it from occurring again. They are neither about clearing nor blaming anyone.

At this stage it still is about ...'What'... Which means, like @DaveReidUK posted, listing possible scenarios. Hope for better and more detailed pictures as well as more information.

@ErwinS... Would be interesting if you could provide public domain links to similar cases (you suggested there are some) or Boeing bulletins.

Depends which part of the world you live/work. :(

Be good to see a photo of the panel surround on this particular aircraft as it arrived.
Also the back of the panel.

This particular panel coming adrift has been an issue for years, the support bracket design isnt the best in the world. If you have access to myboeingfleet there is a long discussion about it.

A I said;-) Thiswas indeed a bracket failure. But people like to speculate ....

Bracket Broken
 

If we are to accept the info from Erwin S quoted above we should also ask "where is the bracket and, if a bracket failed, where are the numerous attachment screws which held the panel in place?" Having removed and replaced many panels during my aviation career I have no doubt this is the result of a maintenance error.

Think what you want. Just saying it is not a mx error.

And no I won't post any official Boeing docs.

Sure, blame it on the old "bracket failure" thing :*

Okay, fair enough

Out of interest, which side(s) of the panel are attached to the bracket in question ?

And what are the other sides of the panel attached to ?

If the bracket failed, why isn't the failed part of the bracket still attached to the panel ?

In fact, how come every single screw has disappeared ?