After a week-long investigation, a probe concluded that a recent Titan Airways incident involving an a321LR returning to London Stansted Airport (STN) was caused by the aircraft simply missing windows before takeoff.

The incident occurred on October 4 when the aircraft, an a321LR registered G-OATW, suddenly turned around while ascending at 10,000 feet and returned to Stansted Airport. The plane operated a regularly scheduled flight between Stansted Airport and Orlando International Airport (MCO) in Florida.

Reportedly, the plane turned around after the flight attendants notified the pilots of excessive noise in the cabin. The aircraft stayed approximately 15,000 feet to dump fuel before returning to make an emergency landing at Stansted Airport roughly 35 minutes after the initial departure.

The incident has been investigated, and a newly released probe showed that three missing and loose windows caused excessive cabin noise. The investigation also found significant damage across the aircraft, with the left stabilizer in particular being in bad condition.

Baffling, however, is that the aircraft had undergone routine maintenance and inspection just days beforehand, having been in the shop from September 23 to October 2. Moreover, the plane is less than three years old and delivered to Titan Airways in March of 2021. Before being used by Titan, the British Government used the aircraft for VIP flights, but the total flying time of the plane was still very small.

Titan Airways does not operate regularly scheduled passenger flights, but it operates charter flights with passengers. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the incident, but how the plane was able to operate with broken windows, or how the windows broke in the first place, remains unclear. Titan will certainly have to answer many questions over the coming days.

Presumably, more information on how and when the windows broke will likely be released in the coming days and weeks. Still, for now, the incident remains troubling, given the aircraft's maintenance history.