Late last week, an Aeroflot A321 was found to have sustained damage to one of its flap track fairings after arriving in Moscow from Budapest. Upon inspection, it was discovered that one of the landing-gear wheels was missing a bolt.
Some incidents involving lost parts or debris lead to severe damage to aircraft - such as the engine failure of a United Airlines Boeing 777 at the beginning of 2021 or the foreign object damage sustained by three British Airways 787 Dreamliners at Chicago O'Hare a little over a year ago.
Meanwhile, many, thankfully, go pretty unnoticed during operations. However, that does not mean that they do not warrant investigation and attention. If there are possible maintenance issues, these need to be identified to avoid future occurrences with potentially more dire results. Often though, with more minor damage, the aircraft can be up and running almost immediately.
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Fairing punched through
On December 3rd, an Aeroflot Airbus A321-200 operated flight SU2031 from Budapest, Hungary, to Moscow, Russia. The aircraft, registered as VP-BEE, took off at 12:30 local time from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD). It landed two hours and 21 minutes later at Moscow Sheremetyevo after an uneventful journey.
However, upon arrival, a post-flight inspection revealed that the inner flaps fairing on the right-hand side had been punched through. According to the Aviation Herald, a bolt on the number four right-hand wheel was found to be missing. An inspection of Sheremetyevo runways and taxi-ways did reportedly not discover any foreign objects.
Special colors VP-BEE
According to flight radar tracking sites, the aircraft in question was back up in the air the following day. It has since completed five return services and just touched back down in Moscow from Yerevan a few hours ago. Aeroflot has a total of 32 A321-200s in its fleet and three A321neos.
VP-BEE is just over six years old and named after the stage actor and director Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov, who passed away in 2014. In 2018, the airline painted it in special colors celebrating the carrier's 95th anniversary.
What are flap track fairings?
The flap track fairings are located underneath the wing of an aircraft. They house the mechanical workings of the inboard and outboard flaps in order to make the aircraft more aerodynamic and reduce drag. Specifically, they function as covers for the hydraulic actuators.
The A321 has five additional smaller flap track fairings compared to the A319 and the A320. This is due to the second set of flaps which its smaller siblings do not have.
Boeing and Airbus both use similarly structured flap fairings. However, McDonnell Douglas aircraft have vertical flap fairings that house the mechanical gadgetry that makes the flaps move.