A flight was canceled minutes before takeoff after a passenger noticed bolts missing from the wing — even though experts say it was perfectly safe

• A flight was canceled moments before takeoff after a passenger noticed missing bolts on the wing.
• The Airbus A330 operated by Virgin Atlantic was set to fly from Manchester, England, to JFK in NYC.

On January 15, Phil Hardy planned to fly from Manchester, England, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City with Virgin Atlantic — until he noticed four fastening bolts missing from a wing panel, reported.

So Hardy told a flight attendant, and the Airbus A330 flight was canceled minutes before takeoff, the New York Post said, citing an interview Hardy gave to the Kennedy News agency.

The flight was canceled "to provide time for precautionary additional engineering maintenance checks," a Virgin Atlantic representative told Business Insider in a statement.

Following the cancellation, the airline rebooked passengers on alternative flights to NYC, The Independent reported.

The missing bolts were not a safety concern, experts say

While no doubt scary for passengers like Hardy, the missing fasteners weren't necessary for the flight's safety, the Virgin Atlantic representative told BI.

The bolts were missing from a secondary structure panel, Neil Firth, the Airbus local chief wing engineer for the A330, told BI in an email, and the plane was therefore still safe to fly.

"The panel is used to improve the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft," he said. "Each of these panels has 119 fasteners, so there was no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate. As a precautionary measure, the aircraft underwent an additional maintenance check, and the fasteners were replaced."

"We'd like to apologize to our customers for the delay to their journeys," Virgin Atlantic told BI in a statement, adding that the plane was back in service following an inspection.

Recent flight malfunctions have prompted several emergency landings

The news follows a Boeing horror story that led to a federal investigation.

A door plug on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 traveling from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, popped off midair on January 5. The malfunction resulted in a gaping hole in the cabin wall and an emergency landing, BI previously reported. No one was hurt during the incident.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the Boeing aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines was also missing four fastening bolts, but on the door plug rather than the wing panel, BI previously reported.

An Alaska Airlines representative previously told BI: "The aircraft landed safely back at Portland International Airport with 174 guests and six crew members. We are investigating what happened and will share more information as it becomes available."

The incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to ground all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes and "determine if Boeing failed to ensure completed products conformed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in compliance with FAA regulations," an FAA press release from January 11 said.

On Wednesday, the FAA provided an update to the same release, announcing that it's implementing a new, "rigorous inspection and maintenance process" before taking steps to put the fleet back in the air. "The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning these aircraft to service," the update added.

While not a safety issue, the recent Virgin Atlantic flight cancellation is not the first problem the airline has faced this year.

On January 7, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 traveling from Manchester to Barbados made an emergency landing after the smell of smoke filled the cockpit, The Independent reported.

Once the aircraft landed safely, firefighters arrived at the scene, and the airline cited "technical issues" as the reason for the emergency landing, The Independent said.