A plane from Austrian Airlines got really messed up by hail when it flew into a big thunderstorm on Sunday. Austrian Airlines explained that a thunderstorm cell is like a big mass of air with strong winds going up and down, which can make a plane shake a lot when it flies through it.
The plane, carrying 173 passengers and six crew members, traveled from Palma de Mallorca in Spain to Vienna, Austria, and safely landed in Vienna.
Austrian Airlines reported that a mayday emergency call was made during the flight.
Photos on social media reveal that the front of the plane was badly damaged, with the cockpit’s top bent and the cockpit windows cracked.
Yesterday, an Airbus A320 plane flying from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna, flight OS434, was hit by hail. Austrian Airlines told CNN that the plane got caught in a big storm when it was coming in to land in Vienna. The cockpit crew couldn’t see this storm on their radar.
Austrian Airlines also mentioned that the hail damaged the two front windows of the cockpit, the nose of the plane (called the “radome”), and some of the panels on the plane.
Right now, experts are checking the plane to see exactly how much damage it suffered.
This incident comes after another one last month, when a passenger died and over 70 people were hurt on a Singapore Airlines flight because of severe turbulence. In the same week, 12 people were injured on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin.