An Indian passenger jet that encountered a hailstorm mid-flight and left passengers terrified, made a safe landing, despite significant damage to the plane.
The IndiGo plane was traveling from Indian capital New Delhi to Srinagar, the largest city in India-administered Kashmir on Wednesday – a flight that typically takes about an hour and a half – when it was met with “a sudden hailstorm en route,” according to a statement from IndiGo.
“The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol, and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar,” it said.
The statement did not specify what damage the plane encountered but photographs of the aircraft show a large hole in the nose.
Delhi experienced widespread rain, lightning, and thunderstorms Wednesday night.
Video taken by a passenger, Sheikh Samiullah, and posted to X shows widespread panic and fear the moment the plane encountered the hail, causing severe turbulence that rattled the inside of the aircraft.
People can be heard screaming and children can be heard crying as the plane shakes violently.
The flight was going smoothly and passengers assumed they would arrive in Srinagar within 30 minutes when the pilot made a fasten seatbelt announcement, Samiullah told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“There was so much turbulence that I thought it was my last flight. Everyone thought we would crash. It was such a traumatic experience,” he said.
“I am a frequent flier, but I’ve never experienced anything like this. We are very thankful to the pilot for landing safely.”
Samiullah described his shock at seeing the plane’s condition when he got off.
“After we deboarded and saw the plane’s damage, it was even more traumatic,” he said. “I wish no one goes through an experience like this.”
Incidents like these are not uncommon, said Mary Schiavo, a CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation.
Hail can cause significant damage to planes, including breaching the nose and damaging the windshield, but despite this, many planes have been able to land safely, she said.
Sometimes bad weather doesn’t show up on the radar “and you’re in the hail before you know it,” Shiavo said.
“There have been other planes where the hail has beaten the nose in or beaten pieces of the nose off. And while (the plane) can lose equipment, the important thing is they still have the control.”
Shiavo described how the pilot would have had to manually fly the plane in a “stressful” situation.
“The performance of the plane will be impacted (by the hail). They have to make sure they keep it under control,” she said. “And of course, they have to worry if more can go wrong other than losing the nose… It’ll be a very stressful event but it’s amazing the planes… can make it through that.”
Incidents of severe turbulence have made headlines in the past, including one from Singapore Airlines last year, when a passenger died and more than 70 were injured.
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