An Austrian Airlines plane had its windscreen shattered and nose cone torn off after flying through a thunderstorm

11.06.2024 - 06:13 / insider.com

An Austrian Airlines plane traveling from Spain to Austria was left severely damaged after flying through a thunderstorm on Sunday.

"Airbus A320 aircraft was damaged by hail on yesterday's flight OS434 from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna," the airline said in a statement to CNN on Monday.

"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, adding that pilots had made a mayday emergency call during the flight.

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According to the airline, the plane's two front cockpit windows, nose, and some paneling were "damaged by the hail," per CNN. All 173 passengers and six crew members were unharmed and made a safe landing in Vienna.

Photos going around social media detail the extent of the plane's damage. Besides having a large portion of its nose peeled off, the aircraft's front cockpit windows appeared to be shattered as well.

When you send off four besties and they end up being „attacked“ by hail, lose half of the cockpit nose and have their front windows shattered prior to arrival. #OS434 Palma to Vienna. Very pleased you all touched ground - alive. Thanks #austrian #aua #airlines pic.twitter.com/SHOUsUY5Wg

One of the flight's passengers, Emmeley Oakley, told ABC News that the plane ran into "a cloud of hail and thunderstorm" when it was "about 20 minutes from landing."

"We could definitely feel the hail coming down on the plane, and it was quite loud and super rocky for a minute," Oakley said. "It wasn't until we exited that we saw the nose was missing! The pilots really did an excellent job keeping things as smooth and safe as they could."

Austrian Airlines said in a statement to Fox Business that their technical team has been "tasked with assessing the specific damage to the aircraft."

"The safety of our passengers and crews is the top priority," the airline added. 

Representatives for Austrian Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

The incident comes after several flights were hit by severe turbulence last month.

On May 20, a Singapore Airlines flight that was traveling from London to Singapore was flying over the south of Myanmar when turbulence sent the plane plunging 178 feet in four seconds.

A 73-year-old passenger died of a suspected heart attack, and dozens of passengers were left injured in the incident.

A Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin encountered a similar problem just days later, on May 26. Six passengers and six crew members sustained injuries when the plane ran into turbulence while flying over Turkey.