A LOUGHTON man was among airline passengers who found themselves on board a plane for a flight to Colombo - still without its wing tip which had been lost in a runway crash the previous day.

An article in today's Mail on Sunday newspaper reports that passengers were put up in hotels on the night of the collision at Heathrow two weeks ago after the Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus A340 struck the wing of a stationary British Airways 747.

But when they arrived the next day for the flight to Colombo the passengers found themelves on the same plane, still minus its wing tip.

Quoted in the Mail on Sunday article, former policeman Ian McKie, 54, from Loughton - a Club Class passenger on the flight with his partner Gill Stone, 52 - said: "We were put up in hotels the night of the crash and next morning we were told we would be on a different plane that day.

"We only realised that we were actually going on the same aircraft when we got to the Club lounge and saw the plane but without its wing tip."

Mr McKie added: "On board, the cabin crew admitted that it was the same one as last time and that the tip had been ripped off. They assured us it didn't matter but a number of the passengers insisted that they would rather get on the next flight."

Sri Lankan Airlines has said there was no danger in flying without a wing tip.

The article quotes an airline spokesman as saying: "They are purely for aerodynamics and to keep fuel costs to a minimum. There is no impact on safety at all. Safety is our absolute priority."