The pilots are a long way in front of the wings on these large aircraft and often can't see them, even from looking back out of the side windows. So it would make sense that the passengers would notice and the pilots not.

The BA aircraft is back flying again, minus the broken wing tip. Which it can fly without.

Richard Miller, London,

Hi I was one of the passengers on the Sri Lankan aircraft last night and am staying at my brothers in Weybridge as we were told that there may not be enough hotel rooms available by a guy from Skr Lankan airways. We were not informed at any time that we were entitled to a refund and when I left at 1;45 am people were still waiting for hotel vouchers and allocation. The incident occured at around 10:00 and we were on the plane until midnight before we were 'disembarked'. The air inside the aircraft was getting quite unpleasant by this time as children had been sick etc. A lady witnessed the crash as she was looking out onto the wing that was damaged from the accident. She yelled to the pilot to stop and kept repeating "No, no no, stop stop stop!" We were all amazed that a passenger noticed that an accident was about to happen and neither of the pilots realised what was going on. Initially, we were told by an air stewardess that we would fly which was met with disbelief .

Caryl Hirons, london, uk