• A TikToker posted a video of a Spirit Airways employee utilizing tape on an plane wing earlier than takeoff.
• Within the video, the TikToker shares concern concerning the tape “holding it collectively.”
• However specialists advised Insider the employee was utilizing velocity tape, which is a traditional aviation observe.

Nobody needs to take off figuring out their airplane is being held collectively by simply tape.

However that is precisely what a TikToker mistakenly feared after they witnessed and filmed a Spirit Airways employee unrolling silver tape onto the wing of an airplane.

The viral video was posted to their web page on Wednesday and has gained 1.6 million views. In it, the employee locations one strip down, cuts the tape, smooths it over, after which provides a second layer to the plane’s wing, simply earlier than takeoff. 

TikToker @myhoneysmacks and viewers have been fast to query why a aircraft was being taped.

“For this reason I do not fly with Spirit,” the TikToker will be heard saying within the background of the video. 

“That is gorilla glue tape girly you safer than you have been earlier than it was fastened,” one TikTok commenter wrote. 

One other added, “I am shocked somebody did not rise up and begin screaming about somebody duct taping the wing and wanting off proper now!”

The TikToker ends the video by saying, “you flying all world wide and you bought tape holding it collectively. Child, no.” TikToker @myhoneysmacks didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.

However specialists say that silver tape is not duct tape. As an alternative, it is a particular sort of tape designed for an plane, it is protected, and utilizing it’s a widespread observe within the business. 

What viewers are seeing is known as velocity tape

As Insider beforehand reported, that silvery roll of tape noticed within the video is known as velocity tape. 

It is an aluminum-based materials and isn’t used for structural repairs, John Nance, a veteran pilot and security guide, advised The Washington Put up. As an alternative, its major function is to cowl patches of peeling paint and forestall additional weathering of the plane, the identical supply reported. 

In an e mail despatched to Insider, a Spirit Airways consultant confirmed that the employee was utilizing velocity tape. 

Velocity tape is designed for touring all world wide. It will possibly face up to excessive winds, temperatures starting from -65 and 300 levels Fahrenheit, moisture, flame, UV rays, and chemical substances, in accordance with the velocity tape producer, 3M.

And Spirit Airways is way from the one airline to make use of it. As The Factors Man reported, velocity tape is a “normal observe in airline upkeep.”

So whereas the TikToker swore off ever boarding a Spirit flight once more within the video, there is a seemingly likelihood that whichever airline they change to may even be utilizing velocity tape. 

This is not the primary time movies about velocity tape have gone viral

@Myhoneysmacks is not the primary particular person to boost an alarm over seeing airplane wings coated in tape.

Final October, a traveler in Australia tweeted a photograph of a Qantas airplane wing coated in tape. Folks mistakenly thought it was duct tape as an alternative of velocity tape, and the picture shortly went viral. 

As Insider beforehand reported, CheckMate, a weekly fact-checking publication produced by RMIT and ABC, confirmed that the tape in that picture was velocity tape as nicely — not duct tape.

So relaxation assured, if you happen to board a aircraft and see a patch of silvery tape caught to the wing, it should not trigger concern.