Yahoo Finance Virgin Atlantic flight aborted mid-air after bosses discovered a pilot had not completed their training
A Virgin Atlantic flight to New York was forced to return to Heathrow after bosses discovered that one of its pilots had not completed their training.
Virgin Atlantic, majority-owned by billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, apologised for the disruption to passengers and blamed a “rostering issue”.
It said internal training protocols, rather than UK aviation or safety regulations, had been breached.
Pilots blamed Britain’s “draconian Covid restrictions” that have put airlines’ training systems under strain.
Flight VS3, an Airbus A330 capable of carrying 261 passengers, aborted its flight to New York as it passed over Ireland about 10.15am on Monday.
Virgin Atlantic managers on the ground realised shortly after take-off that one of the pilots had not completed their final assessment flight. The flight’s captain was not qualified to fly alongside a first officer who had not fully completed dedicated Virgin Atlantic training.
The pilot was swapped after the plane returned to Heathrow. The flight subsequently arrived at New York’s JFK airport two hours and 40 minutes late.
The airline, meanwhile, has reviewed its internal processes to avoid a repeat of such an incident.
Virgin Atlantic said that both crew members were fully licensed and qualified to operate the aircraft. However the flight turned back as the pilot pairing did not meet the airline’s training protocols because the captain did not hold designated trainer status.
The captain was described by sources as “highly experienced” with “many thousands of hours of flight time during 17 years at Virgin Atlantic”.
His co-pilot was a first officer who joined Virgin Atlantic in 2017. He is trained, fully licensed and fully type-rated in accordance with UK regulation, but was pending a “final assessment” flight.
A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: “Due to a rostering error, flight VS3 from London Heathrow to New York-JFK returned to Heathrow on Monday 2nd May shortly after take-off.
“The qualified first officer, who was flying alongside an experienced captain, was replaced with a new pilot to ensure full compliance with Virgin Atlantic’s training protocols, which exceed industry standards.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers who arrived 2 hours 40 minutes later than scheduled as a result of the crew change.”
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “Virgin Atlantic has made us aware of the incident. Both pilots were suitably licensed and qualified to undertake the flight.”
Virgin Atlantic was hit hard by the Covid pandemic with flights to America the last to restart amid tight travel restrictions. The US, one of Virgin Atlantic’s key destinations, only reopened its borders to British citizens in November.
Some 3,500 of its 10,000-strong workforce lost their jobs months after the start of the pandemic with a further 1,150 culled later in 2020.
Holidaymakers were hit by chaos at airports during the Easter holidays as airlines and airports struggled to ramp up their operations in time for a surge in overseas travel.
Bosses blamed the Government for failing to complete security checks in time. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, meanwhile accused aviation failing to “gear up” for the Easter break after sacking tens of thousands of employees during the Covid crisis.
The Telegraph revealed last month that the aviation minister, Robert Courts, was intervening to relax vetting procedures, allowing staff to begin training before background checks were completed. Mr Shapps confirmed the plans last week.
Martin Chalk, general secretary of Balpa, said the pilots’ union was still gathering information about flight VS3 and not aware of the full details.
However, he added: “We suggest that this is a symptom of the strain the industry has been put under by draconian Covid restrictions and the obvious desire of people to travel. If the support for our industry had been as generous as in other countries then the ramp up of operations would have not stretched training systems as they currently are."
British Airways, Virgin Atlantic’s arch rival, has taken unprecedented measures to hire new workers after being forced to cancel hundreds of flights in recent weeks because of a lack of staff.
The flag carrier offered a £1,000 “welcome bonus” to lure cabin crew with security clearances from rivals amid ferocious competition for staff.
Meanwhile, BA is setting up its first overseas base for short-haul flights in Madrid so that it can tap Spanish employment markets, The Telegraph revealed last month.
“We are looking at a range of temporary options to ensure we can support our customers this summer as we ramp our operation back up,” a spokesman for BA said at the time.
