Shredded: The China Southern a380 landed through a severe hail storm that cancelled 143 other flights. Photo / Weibo, supplied
Shredded: The China Southern a380 landed through a severe hail storm that cancelled 143 other flights. Photo / Weibo, supplied
Severe hailstorms have been causing chaos across China over one of its busiest air traffic corridors.
At the beginning of the week an Airbus A380 landed into severe hail over Beijing airport.
The China Southern flight CZ3101 from Guangzhou suffered damage to its nose and the cockpit windows as itcame into land at around 11.50 on May 26.
'Like a machine gun': View from the cockpit of the China Southern flight. Photo / Wiebo
According to China.org.cn 'None of the passengers or crew members aboard suffered any injuries,' and the airline released a statement confirming this through the Chinese-language social media platform Sina Weibo.
The same could not be said for the aircraft, whose nose was blunted and the glass was badly cracked and pitted by flying ice.
The Airline released images of the incident showing the view from inside the damaged cockpit.
In recordings of the landing the pilots can be heard describing the damage and reduced visibility to the air traffic control. In spite of this the plane was able to make a safe landing, albeit half an hour behind schedule.
Passenger reported the plane was also hit by severe turbulence. "The plane was rocked three or four times, each lasting around half a minute," a passenger told China.org.cn.
The nose cone of the a380 was stripped of paint by flying ice. Photo / Twitter.com
"It felt like riding a roller coaster. I nearly vomited. It was so lucky that we made a safe landing," said another passenger.
As the weather worsened on Sunday morning, a total of 143 planes were cancelled into and out of Beijing airport.
Flight CZ3101: Guangzhou to Beijing flew into heavy hail and turbulence. Photo / Flight Radar, Supplied
Captain Ivan, a pilot based out of Asia under the twitter handle of @CockpitChatter shared photos of the incident via social media, describing some of his own encounters flying through hail. "In one of them our windshield got cracked. The sound is very similar to a machine gun," he said.
China Southern Airlines Airbus A380-841 B-6140 (MSN 120 - active), flight CZ3101 Guangzhou (CAN) - Beijing (PEK), due to large hail during the approach to PEK. pic.twitter.com/MsLpZ1ho4K
He assured worried air travellers that although the cockpit had taken the brunt of the storm the engines are designed to take a large amount of abuse from hailstorms.
"The engines can take a huge amount of water and hail before failing. But for sure in this case they will need a deep inspection."
