Updated 00.45 | Published 00.33
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full screen The plane lost its nose during the hail storm. Photo: Uwz.At/X
The plane from the holiday paradise had just begun its approach – then the hailstorm hit.
The nose of the aircraft was torn off and could be seen flying past from inside the cabin.
– Then the pilot is just a guest in his cockpit, says an aviation expert to the Kronen-Zeitung.
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Sunday’s hailstorm shocked passengers and pilots alike. The Austrian Airlines plane was on its way from the tourist paradise of Mallorca to Vienna when it flew straight into a thunderstorm. According to the airline, no warning signs were visible on the radar in the cockpit.
The hail was so intense that both cockpit windows were smashed – and almost the entire nose hood of the aircraft was torn off. A passenger told Austria’s Kronen-Zeitung that he saw the nose fly past from inside the cabin.
Finally the pilots shouted mayday and the aircraft was forced to land.
Emmeley Oakley sat in the cabin. She speaks up ABC that the storm hit 20 minutes before landing.
– We came into a cloud of hail and thunder, then the turbulence started, she says.
The hail could clearly be heard hitting the aircraft.
– We could definitely feel the hail hitting the plane. It was pretty loud and super shaky for a while.
She says passengers screamed when the storm hit.
According to her, it was all over in two minutes, but “glasses and phones” were flying around the cabin.
Aviation expert Thomas Friesacher tells the Kronen-Zeitung that such storms are difficult to detect. And that an aircraft’s weather radar mainly shows humidity.
– However, this type of hail is very cold and therefore very dry. The hailstones are then literally thrown from the clouds from kilometers away. You can’t look at the radar, he tells the newspaper.
“You just have to get through it”
He explains that these situations are inevitable.
– You just have to get through it. But then for a short while you are just a guest in the cockpit, he says.
Despite the greatly reduced visibility through the destroyed windshields, the aircraft, an Airbus A320, was finally able to land at Vienna-Schwechat Airport.
No one was hurt, but the same cannot be said for the aircraft.
– It wasn’t until we went outside that we saw that the nose was missing! The pilots really did an excellent job of keeping things as smooth and safe as they could, writes Emmeley Oakley.
A group of Austrian youths told the Kronen-Zeitung that they were still shaking when they reached the ground, and that they had had enough of flying for a while.
An Austrian Airlines spokesperson told the BBC that “the hail has damaged the two front cockpit windows, the nose of the aircraft and some coatings.”
The hail scare comes just weeks after the turbulence on the Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore. That flight ended with one person dead and around thirty injured, ten of them seriously.