The chartered Airbus A321 was climbing through 10,000 ft after departure from London Stansted Airport when a crewmember saw a window seal near the overwing exits “flapping in the airflow” and noted that the windowpane had apparently slipped down. He informed the flight crew, and as they flew the airplane back to Stansted, several windowpanes fell out.
The flight’s landing at Stansted was uneventful, and none of the 11 crewmembers and nine passengers was injured.
In its final report on the accident, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said that the acrylic windows had been damaged the day before the flight in a filming event involving the use of high-intensity lights that heated the windows, causing them to shrink and become distorted.
Although the commander and several maintenance personnel inspected the airplane before it departed from Stansted on what was to have been a flight to Orlando (Florida, U.S.) International Airport, they saw no indication of a…
