Airplane Literally Held Together With 'Duct Tape'?

Airplane Literally Held Together With 'Duct Tape'?
by Caroline Morse, SmarterTravel Staff - October 24, 2011 at 3:22 PM

Has notoriously cheap airline Ryanair resorted to fixing its planes with
tape and a prayer? The Telegraph reported Monday that a Ryanair flight
from Britain's Stansted airport to Riga, Latvia, had to turn back after
about 20 minutes because the tape securing the cockpit's windscreen had
come loose.

Yes, you read that right. The tape holding together the cockpit window.
No word yet whether MacGyver was on the scene as well.

Nervous fliers looking outside their windows before takeoff were
probably not comforted to see the ground crew using what appeared to be
"duct tape or gaffer tape" to secure the edges of the window. Said one
passenger in The Sun, "We were in the sky, then the pilot said due to
damage on the windscreen, we were going to have to turn back." In
fairness, The Sun also reported that The Irish Aviation Authority said a
new window seal was being secured with tape as a precaution, and that
they had completed their investigation into the incident.

If Ryanair is going to scare their passengers like this, they may have
to reconsider their plan to remove almost all of the bathrooms on their
planes. Those extra lavatories may be needed after all.

What do you think? Did Ryanair value cost and time savings over
passenger safety, or would you feel comfortable flying in a plane
literally held together by tape—for any reason?

http://www.smartertravel.com/airfare...duct-tape.html