Summary

  • Expect water cannon salutes for special flights.
  • In 2015, foam mistaken for water clogged aircraft engines.
  • The incident caused one-day flight delay, but route now operates daily.

Water cannon salutes are celebratory gestures typically deployed for special flights, such as the inaugural or final service on a given route. Occasionally, these will also be used to mark a pilot’s retirement. Spraying aircraft in such a manner is harmless, as long, that is, as water is what is sprayed. In 2015, a mixup at the UK’s Manchester Airport caused a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 to be sprayed with foam instead.

What should have been a celebratory departure

In March 2015, Virgin Atlantic launched a new route connecting Manchester Airport (MAN) with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in the US state of Georgia. According to the Manchester Evening News, Virgin Atlantic began serving the route with its Airbus A330-300 widebodies to provide more capacity on the corridor than the Boeing 767 aircraft belonging to US legacy carrier Delta Air Lines.

The inaugural rotation on this brand-new transatlantic corridor for Virgin Atlantic was an eastbound overnight leg from Atlanta to Manchester. This service went to plan, and it arrived safely in the northwest of England on the morning of March 30th, 2015 with 188 satisfied passengers onboard. It was only once on the ground that things began to go awry, when airport firefighters greeted the twinjet.

They did so with a water cannon salute, which, as mentioned earlier in the article, is a common visual practice nowadays for maiden arrivals on new airline routes. However, one of the fire engines involved in the salute mistakenly sprayed the inbound Airbus A330-300 with an arch of fire-suppressing foam rather than water as planned, with the foam coating parts of the aircraft, including, crucially, its engines.

Related

All Over The World: What Are Virgin Atlantic’s Longest Routes?

In July, Virgin Atlantic will operate some of its longest routes from London (LHR) to destinations like Shanghai, Johannesburg, and Los Angeles.

A330-300 Virgin Atlantic MSN1352 landing

Photo: Hervé Goussé | Airbus

According to Oshkosh Airport Products, foam has been used as a firefighting agent since the early 1900s, and it is low in viscosity. It is effective in fighting fires at airports as it can coat burning materials in a manner that prevents further oxygen from fuelling the fire, as well as covering high amounts of spilled jet fuel in short periods of time. TFT adds that it also reduces heat, further hindering a fire’s growth.

Delayed by a day

According to Aero Latin News, the presence of foam in the widebody twinjet’s Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines is said to have clogged up their fan blades. This resulted in the aircraft in question being withdrawn from service for a thorough safety check, not to mention the removal of the offending foam. Naturally, this had a significant knock-on effect on the inaugural flight from Manchester Airport to Atlanta.

Related

Up To 37 Daily Flights: Where Virgin Atlantic Is Flying This Summer

Some 85% of summer services are from the UK to just two countries.

Although the service was initially scheduled to depart from Manchester at 10:35 local time, passengers on the US-bound flight were eventually called to the gate at around 15:00. However, after a further wait there, airport staff finally informed them that, owing to the aircraft’s extensive safety check, it would be unable to fly to Atlanta that day as planned. This resulted in a one-day delay to the flight.

The route operates daily today

In the aftermath of the inaugural flight’s postponement, Virgin Atlantic offered passengers meals and overnight accommodation before eventually flying them out to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International the following day. Thankfully, the incident doesn’t seem to have impacted the route too severely, as the carrier continues to operate flight VS109 between Manchester and Atlanta today, still using the A330.

A330-300 VIRGIN ATLANTIC MSN1296 TAKE OFF

Photo: Hervé Goussé | Airbus

According to present scheduling data from Flightradar24, VS109 currently operates on a daily basis, with a scheduled departure time from Manchester Airport of 11:40. Its planned arrival in Atlanta, after a block time of nine hours and 20 minutes, is 16:00 local time. Meanwhile, the return leg of this flight (numbered as VS110) leaves the Georgian hub at 18:10, touching down in Manchester at 07:15 the next day.

Despite, as mentioned earlier, Virgin Atlantic launching its route from Manchester to Atlanta in order to compete with Delta Air Lines, the US legacy carrier no longer serves this transatlantic corridor. Indeed, historical data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that Delta last served this route back in 2017. April was the only month year that Delta had a presence on the corridor, offering:

  • 18 flights.
  • 5,238 seats.
  • 21,465,324 available seat miles.

The aircraft involved

As pictured in the X post embedded earlier in the article, the Airbus A330-300 impacted by the unfortunate foamy shower bears the name Beauty Queen. This twinjet is registered as G-VSXY, and has been with Virgin Atlantic for its entire operational career. The carrier is known for its love of matching aircraft registrations to names, and the link in this instance between ‘S(E)XY’ and ‘Beauty Queen’ is clear.

Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 Landing In Sunny Conditions

Photo: P Masclet | Airbus

According to current fleet data made available by ch-aviation, the airline received this now 13.5-year-old twinjet in February 2011, just over a month after its first flight. It features 185 economy class seats (eight abreast), as well as 48 premium economy recliners (seven abreast) and 31 ‘Upper Class’ open suites (three abreast). As of April 30th, 2024, it had racked up 53,869 flight hours across 7,737 flight cycles.

What do you make of this incident? Have you ever seen a water cannon salute go wrong? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!


  • Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350-1041 (2)

    Virgin Atlantic

    IATA/ICAO Code:
    VS/VIR

    Airline Type:
    Full Service Carrier

    Hub(s):
    London Heathrow Airport

    Year Founded:
    1984

    CEO:
    Shai Weiss

    Country:
    United Kingdom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *