Emirates B777 damaged in hailstorm

[red750]

The United Arab Emirates flight had taken off from Malpensa airport in the Italian city of Milan heading to New York's JFK airport when it flew into a storm with hail the size of tennis balls on Wednesday.

 

 

[facthunter]

That's why weather radar is fitted.. Nev

[onetrack]

Yes, you just have to question why a large commercial aircraft such as a B777 flew into a major hailstorm - even if it was at low level and close to the airport, I'm sure they could've arranged a delay to avoid it.

[facthunter]

Not that I consider them a bad airline,but their AD(vert) says Emerates FLY BETTER.. Appropriate operation of the (Compulsory) weather radar on board would detect  that weather and allow safe avoidance.. I believe  weather events are becoming more severe in a general  sense so training emphasis might change with the  situation. Nev

[spacesailor]

Could have taken off, trying to beat the storm.

spacesailor

[onetrack]

One of the better articles states the aircraft ran into the hailstorm over the Alps at 15,000' on their way to their planned FL of 32,000'.

 

That's not trying to "beat" anything, that's simply failing to avoid what would have shown up as a storm cell on their weather radar.

 

There must have been a suitable storm avoidance path available - although if it was a particularly large thunderstorm, and they were constrained by some other flight path limitations, which meant they couldn't go around it, and had to try and select the best path through it, that may explain the damage.

[red750]

Here's more from the original article:

 

The United Arab Emirates flight had taken off from Malpensa airport in the Italian city of Milan heading to New York's JFK airport when it flew into a storm with hail the size of tennis balls on Wednesday.

Lombardi Airports Association, located in the Malpensa Airport, told Newsflash that the plane "immediately after take-off from Malpensa entered a hail storm".

 

"After about 97 minutes from take-off (the plane) returned to Malpensa,” it said.

 

The crew had been forced to remain in the air despite the damage which happened only a few minutes after they set off because they needed to burn off the fuel. 

 

As it was a transatlantic flight, the plane had set off with a full tank and for safety reasons, there are limits to the amount of fuel planes are allowed to carry when landing.

 

The airport officials said that the strong winds continued to cause problems for the flight which struggled to land before eventually touching down safely after two attempts.

 

Lombardi Airports Association confirmed that the eventual landing was successful and there were no injuries reported from passengers or the flight crew.

[lee-wave]

Weather radar is not a perfect answer to bad weather avoidance.....it is a known fact that wet snow and rain show up better then dry hailstones.  I don't think there is a single pilot who would knowingly fly into a severe storm.  These situations will continue to occur and maybe increase as the climate moves into ever increasing turmoil....

[Flightrite]

23 hours ago, lee-wave said:

Weather radar is not a perfect answer to bad weather avoidance.....it is a known fact that wet snow and rain show up better then dry hailstones.  I don't think there is a single pilot who would knowingly fly into a severe storm.  These situations will continue to occur and maybe increase as the climate moves into ever increasing turmoil....

Well said. WX radar is not the magic answer! Been thru plenty of nasty hail over the years that was not expected even with a pretty colour WX RDR.

[facthunter]

Yes you do have to interpret these things. Hail develops in certain types of clouds. Vertically scanning them carefully does that for you. It's part of your training..Hail is usually ahead of the cloud. Often around 25 miles, You also scan the area you are going to fly into prior to take off and IF it's crook you don't take off... Nev

[KRviator]

On 20/07/2021 at 6:52 PM, facthunter said:

You also scan the area you are going to fly into prior to take off and IF it's crook you don't take off... Nev

Unless you're Aer Lingus and then you get to orbit off the departure end of the runway as a pi$$ed off New York ATC'er tries to manage the problem you've now caused!
 

 

[Flightrite]

That ATC controller was way out of place there! NO controller has the right to dictate to a commander what's the best outcome when it comes to WX avoidance, that was a disgraceful performance!

[KRviator]

Agreed, however, if he wasn't happy with the departure routing, he should not have accepted the takeoff clearance. IMHO, that's the time to say "Hang on, our cleared SID will put us through a cell, is an alternative routing available?" rather than launching and then creating a massive headache for all involved...Of course, in hindsight, there's a simple solution: "Shamrock 104Heavy, descend & maintain 1,000, orbit present position, right turns, advise when you can accept the Greki departure". 😈

 

Get's him low enough he's out of the way and puts the onus on the PIC to say when he considers it safe...