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Foam spray mix-up during firefighters' salute grounds plane

The inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester, England, to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was delayed until Tuesday morning.

By Ben Hooper
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MANCHESTER, England, March 31 (UPI) -- Virgin Atlantic's inaugural flight from Manchester, England, to Atlanta was delayed after saluting firefighters accidentally sprayed it with foam.

The Airbus A330-300 was grounded Monday after airport firefighters spraying the plane with water to celebrate its inaugural flight from Manchester Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport accidentally squirted foam onto the vehicle instead.

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Virgin originally rescheduled the flight to depart a few hours later, but passengers were later told the airline would be putting them up in hotels for the night with a scheduled departure time of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Crews were unable to carry out needed repairs overnight due to windy conditions so a second plane was brought in and the flight departed after an hour's delay Tuesday morning.

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