Inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight to Atlanta cancelled after 'water cannon salute' is swapped for foam and clogs engines

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A Virgin Atlantic passenger jet was grounded after a botched ‘water cannon salute’ by airport fire tenders clogged up its engines by spraying thick foam instead of water.

The water canon salute is the sort of flamboyant gesture for which Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline has become famous – and also marks something of a wider aviation tradition.

The Virgin Atlantic plane – with its ‘Beauty Queen’ name emblazoned on the fuselage of the Airbus A330-300 - had just landed in Manchester with 188 passengers on board after its high-profile inaugural flight from Atlanta, Georgia in the USA. 

It was preparing to depart from Manchester as return flight VS109 when the watery tradition was set to send it on it way.

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The plane was setting off form Manchester on its inaugural trip to Atlanta, Georgia, when disaster struck

But disaster struck when the fire tenders at Manchester Airport positioned themselves to spray a giant arch of water over the top of the transatlantic passenger jet - and someone mistakenly pressed the button marked ‘foam’.

So instead of pure water splaying down the aircraft, it was fire-suppressing foam which got into and clogged up the vital and sensitive jet engines and hi-tech turbine blades.

As a result the spluttering plane, dripping with foam residue, was grounded and forced to undergo a top to bottom safety check-over running to thousands of pounds by Virgin Atlantic engineers.

The de-clogging work was carried out as the pilot and flight crew went on a diplomatic mission to explain exactly what had gone wrong.

Some 252 departing passengers hoping to enjoy an on-time departure at 10.35am instead faced a five hour delay before finally being told the flight would have to be cancelled altogether. They are being put up at hotels overnight and told to report for a replacement flight at 9.30am Tuesday.

Passenger Derek Lawrenson, from London, who was heading to the USA for the Masters golf tournament, said: ’The pilot and some of the crew came round to the gate on a goodwill mission. He explained that the plane was being given a water canon salute on the tarmac. Unfortunately someone had pressed the button for foam, instead of water. It clogged up the engines with foam. Foam got into the engines.

’The pilot told us someone had pressed the wrong button. So foam came out rather than water.

‘As a result we were delayed five hours so far before being told the flight had been cancelled. The plane was supposed to take off just after 10.30am.

‘There’s a big queue of people trying to get taxis and hotels.’

Firemen accidentally sprayed the plane with foam instead of water, blocking its engines

Passengers voiced their annoyance on Twitter as their flight was delayed and eventually cancelled

Virgin Atlantic said the foam fiasco incident happened just after the plane had landed at Manchester, carrying passengers from Atlanta.

Eyewitness Ross Hallam tweeted photographs and noted: ’Virgin Atlantic’s first service from MAN-ATL (Manchester to Atlanta) got a water cannon salute but was mistakenly sprayed with foam, so was delayed to remove it!'

Another eyewitness Paul Clare who also posted pictures said: ‘This morning’s 1st Virgin flight from Atlanta was mistakenly sprayed by foam in a fire service salute.’

Nathan Codington said the airport fire service had ‘sprayed Virgin Atlantic A330 with foam instead of water...whoops! LOL (laugh out loud).’

Virgin Atlantic sought to ease the pain by providing stranded passengers with a glass of prosecco and cupcakes

Virgin Atlantic sought to ease the pain by providing stranded passengers with a glass of prosecco and cupcakes while the clean-up work was carried out.

But by 3.45pm they had thrown in the towel and cancelled the flight.

A Virgin Atlantic press officer in Manchester waiting to board the stranded aircraft at departure gate 202 at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 confirmed the sequence of events and admitted: ’Yes, you are right. Someone pressed the wrong button and foam came out instead of water. The engines were checked over as a precaution.’

Virgin confirmed it was an A330-300 plane with 257 planned passengers.

Passenger Mr Lawrenson said: ’There’s a huge queue of 150 people waiting for information, taxis or details of a hotel for the night.’ 

Traveller Ross Hallam received an apology from Virgin Atlantic after tweeting about the incident

The cost of overhaul, repair and compensation and hotels for passengers could run into tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds but the airline said it did not wish to discuss the amount of work required, nor put a sum on the cost. 

Virgin Atlantic insisted the stricken flight VS109 had not been cancelled but simply ‘delayed overnight’.

The airline said that as a safety precaution its engineering team was checking over 'absolutely everything’ on the aircraft, including the engines, to see whether foam may have caused any damage. 

Virgin said: ‘We needed to give the aircraft a thorough check over. The initial delay was whilst our teams carried out the inspection. It was then delayed overnight as the crew ran out of hours. Our crew are legally required a minimum rest time between flights.’