Austrian Airlines Plane Suffers Major Damage to Nose During Severe Hailstorm
In a dramatic turn of events, an Austrian Airlines flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Vienna, Austria, experienced significant damage during its approach due to a severe hailstorm. The flight, OS434, encountered a powerful thunderstorm cell, which caused substantial damage to the aircraft's cockpit windows, exterior coverings, and most notably, the nose cone. Emmeley Oakley, a passenger on the flight, recounted the harrowing experience to ABC News. "I think we were about 20 minutes from landing when we got into a cloud of hail and thunderstorm, and the turbulence started," Oakley said. Passengers onboard could hear the hail striking the airplane, creating a loud and unsettling noise. Oakley described the impact of the hailstorm vividly. "We could definitely feel the hail coming down on the plane and it was quite loud and of course super rocky for a minute," she wrote. The intensity of the storm led the cockpit crew to issue a Mayday call. For ap...
