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Air France plane grounded after technicians noticed 30 screws were missing from wing... after FIVE days of flights
Airbus A340 grounded in Boston
Large protective panel had to be screwed into place
Air France blames mechanics in China
By IAN SPARKS
Last updated at 11:35 AM on 25th November 2011
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An Air France jet flew for five days before ground crews noticed that 30 screws were missing from one of its wings.
The Airbus A340 plane had undergone routine maintenance in China, before flying to Paris and then on to the US before the potentially disastrous blunder was finally spotted.
The plane, which can carry up to 440 passengers, was grounded in Boston while a 'large protective panel' was screwed back into place.

Damaged: An Air France Airbus A340 (similar to the one pictured) flew for five days before ground crews noticed that 30 screws were missing from one of its wings
The gaffe was revealed in an internal union document leaked to French news agency AFP.
Air France have blamed aircraft mechanics in the Chinese city of Xiamen, were the airline's jets are often serviced because of lower costs.
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An Air France technical operations spokesman said: 'The plane flew for several days before it was grounded because one third of the screws holding down a piece of bodywork were missing.
'It was part of the outer covering of the wing and at no point was flight safety compromised.

Tragedy: The Air France Concorde crash 11 years ago killed 113 people and was blamed on a strip of metal on the runway which punctured the plane's tyres and sent rubber fragments flying into a fuel tank
A TROUBLED DECADE FOR AIR FRANCE
July 25, 2000:* Concorde Flight 4590 from De Gaulle airport in Paris to JFK in New York, crashed just after take-off.
All 109 people on board died, and four people on the ground. Probable cause was punctured tyre.
August 2, 2005: Flight 358, an Airbus A340, overshot runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport during a thunderstorm.
All 297 passengers and 12 crew survived but the plane was completely destroyed by fire. Pilot error blamed.
June 1, 2009: Flight 447, an Airbus A330, from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic control while over Atlantic Ocean.
Only portions of the plane and 51 bodies, out of 228 on board, were found. The cause of the disaster is still under investigation.
'The maintenance team that works for Air France are internationally recognised and this is the first ever incident of its kind.'
But an aircraft construction expert said: 'The piece itself may not have endangered the flight if it came off.
'But there is always the risk that it could have struck and damaged another very important part of the aircraft as it became detached and blew away in flight.'
An Air France union spokesman described the oversight as 'deplorable'.
He added: 'Pieces of an aircraft should never simply go missing during maintenance. It is not the first time this has happened either.
'Last year a Boeing 747 was grounded after undergoing maintenance in China because parts of the plane had been painted with flammable paint.'
The crash of an Air France Concorde 11 years ago, killing 113 people, was blamed on a strip of metal on the runway which punctured the plane's tyres and sent rubber fragments flying into a fuel tank.
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Read more: Air France passenger plane grounded in U.S. after ground crews noticed 30 screws were missing from wing | Mail Online