Passengers booked on a Ryanair flight from Palma to Madrid this morning could not believe their eyes.
The plane was scheduled to depart at 8:30 a.m., but the company informed them that boarding would be delayed. A few minutes later, from the windows of the Son Sant Joan terminal, passengers in the pre-boarding lounge (restricted area) could see company workers trying to repair the plane’s pilot’s window with a mop and duct tape.
Passengers began to protest while workers on a lifting platform used a mop to force the window down while others sealed the edges with duct tape.
It is actually High Speed Tape (HST), an advanced engineering product made of aluminium foil coated with an acrylic adhesive that is used to cover minor cosmetic flaws or temporarily repair non-critical parts so as not to delay the departure of the aircraft.
At around 11:30 a.m., passengers were still in the waiting room while they tried to find a solution to the broken window.
Some of the passengers decided not to board the aircraft for safety concerns.
The company offered customers the possibility of flying on another aircraft later, a refunding or rebooking them for another day.
The airline did all it could to try and calm the situation and offer a number of alternative solutions.
Some passengere suggested using ensaimada boxes to patch up the window.