A Delta Airlines flight from Boston to Salt Lake City was forced into an emergency landing after being hit by a storm of “baseball-sized” hailstones that stubbed the aircraft’s nose cone and pockmarked its windscreen.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane from Boston to Salt Lake City was forced to land in Denver on Friday evening. None of the passengers were injured, but one was treated in hospital for shock.
FAA spokesman Ian McGregor confirmed that the aircraft’s nose cone and windshield were severely damaged by a hailstorm, and that an investigation had been launched.
Images of the grounded plane showed the aircraft’s nose cone, which houses the plane’s radar, stripped of paint and punched out of shape. The plane’s two front windshields also appeared to have shattered.
The pilot had warned passengers to expect turbulence as the plane flew through two thunderstorms.
Radar w/loc. (from http://t.co/PBNa4qzwyF) of plane diverted by #hail http://t.co/ikDOnrbuKT https://t.co/xBimMQ4TVw pic.twitter.com/fDHxn0Hh06
— Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) August 8, 2015
Speaking to the Weather Channel, passenger Beau Sorensen said: “Everybody buckled in and then within a minute or two it got really bumpy and we were going up and down like we were on a rollercoaster.”
He added: “The passenger next to me could see lightning dancing across the wing and big baseball-sized hailstones impacting the wing.”
“The pilot got on the intercom and said: ‘Hey there’s been a crack in the windshield so we’ll have to make a diversion to Denver’ … There were some folks who were crying. But we landed. The first indication that it was a little bit more than a crack in the windshield was when we saw the emergency vehicles on the ground. The second clue was when we got off the aircraft and actually saw the damage.”
