Hailstorm Damages Austrian Airlines Airplane

A hailstorm damaged an Austrian Airlines airplane, severely damaging its nose and cockpit.

NBC News reports that en route from Spain to Austria, the aircraft encountered a thunderstorm cell. Thus, Flight OS434 from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Vienna was severely damaged by an unexpected hailstorm.

The crew claims the weather disturbance was not visible on the radar. Subsequently, a mayday distress call was made as the plane flew into the turbulent change in the atmosphere. Per CNN, the plane had 173 passengers and six crew members onboard. 

“Airbus A320 aircraft was damaged by hail on yesterday’s flight OS434 from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna. The aircraft was caught in a thunderstorm cell on approach to Vienna, which according to the cockpit crew was not visible on the weather radar,” Austrian Airlines said in a statement to CNN.

It continued, “According to current information, the two front cockpit windows of the aircraft, the nose of the aircraft [the “radome”] and some paneling were damaged by the hail.”

An Austrian Airlines flight suffered significant damage from hail, which took off part of the airplane's nose. @ErielleReshef has more.https://t.co/a6uiS3D2fj pic.twitter.com/KPM3JOvzfC

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 10, 2024

A passenger on the plane texted Good Morning America. They shared their experiences while on the aircraft during the harrowing event, which occurred as the plane was less than a half-hour away from landing.

“I think we were about 20 minutes from landing when we got into a cloud of hail and thunderstorm, and the turbulence started,” passenger Emmeley Oakley told the news outlet. “We could definitely feel the hail coming down on the plane and it was quite loud and super rocky for a minute.”

Oakley said the flight attendants did a fantastic job calming everyone down and keeping the remainder of the flight as smooth as possible until touchdown occurred at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. Most passengers were reportedly unaware of the damage until exiting the plane and seeing most of the aircraft’s nose ripped away.

The total event only lasted two minutes, per Oakley. However, the damage was quite extensive. Austrian Airlines’ technical team is currently inspecting the plane. Thankfully, none of the passengers were injured.