A China Southern Airbus A320 airliner had a close call a couple of days ago. The Telegraph reports:
Flight CZ3483 from Guangzhou to Chengdu encountered the freak weather on July 9 ... during its descent into the Chinese city. The hailstones badly cracked the glass of both the aircraft’s windscreens, almost entirely obscuring the view outside and forcing the flight crew to rely on the plane’s instruments.
Photographs also showed significant damage to the plane’s nose section.
There's more at the link.
That's about the worst-damaged aircraft windshield I've ever seen - and I've seen more than a few, during my years of flying in bush planes in Africa. Congratulations to the pilots on being able to land safely. It must have been a hairy approach, to put it mildly! I'm glad I wasn't on board.
Peter
Peter,
ReplyDeleteThough I can't find the link, there is a Boeing 737 training film where the captain dons goggles, opens his window, and land the plane old style-with his head out in the wind.
I'd have given a great deal to be standing near the runway, watching that one.
Glen in Texas
Doing that in hail like that, would probably involve getting horribly concussed.
ReplyDeleteInstrument-only landings are supposed to be second nature to those guys. I mean, that's why people train with a hood over their head, or with goggles that blur everything above the instruments. It's a messy looking windshield, but it should have zero impact (pardon the pun) on landing safety.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much the Airbus plastic-fantastic had to do with the windshield cracking the way it did. Would a Boeing have done better?
ReplyDeleteI have had pilots warn me away from flying on Airbus products, is there any truth to that?
Wonder what the blades in the engines look like?
ReplyDelete