Passenger Records Hail Hitting ERJ-145

[skylimey]

Sitting on the ground in Texas this ERJ-145 gets pummeled. Shame the camera focuses on the window, not the tarmac, but it's pretty noisy in there.

Listen to Enormous Hail Pound This Airplane in Texas (http://thevane.gawker.com/listen-to-enormous-hail-pound-this-airplane-in-texas-1590494538)

[west lakes]

Someone's going to say it so might as well be me

Really paying attention to the safety briefing

[Stanwell]

So...
What on earth was the 145 doing taxying out?


There are none so blind..etc.

[con-pilot]

There are none so blind..etc.

True, mostly from lack of knowledge.

You can have hail fall up to fifteen miles or more from the thunderstorm that produced it. Conversely you can be directly under the thunderstorm that is producing that hail and not receive any.

As I was not in the cockpit, nor do I believe you were either, so I don't know what the actual radar was showing, both aircraft and/or ground based. I flew in one of the most active, if not the most active thunderstorm producing areas in the world for 42 years.

When I would leave the gate or ramp in the weather conditions this flight was in, I turned the radar on, with a high tilt, and would look for the most viable departure way out. In fact, there are times in the conditions as filmed in the video, that there could have been an area of clear weather that the pilots were looking at as they were taxing out when the hail started.

So unless you were in the cockpit of this flight, don't judge.

[west lakes]

What on earth was the 145 doing taxying out?

if the visibility is good to taxi, why not, if conditions are unsafe for flight the captain does not need to take off and can hold until they improve. I think that is why airlines have captains to make decisions like this rather than onlookers!

[SpringHeeledJack]

I'd be interested to see what the damage was to the outer skin of the fuselage, especially if the hailstones were as big as the one shown lower down the page of the article :eek:



SHJ