Check out the damage on this 737...

[Leffy Gold]

Check out the damage on this 737...I have never seen anything like it.

737 damage (http://www.myaltitude.********.com).

...scroll down the page to see it.

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Hail is pretty solid stuff, and if you hit it at speed .... see some biz-jets with similar or worse damage to various leading-edge type structures...

[Getoutofmygalley]

Funny how the blog seems to be implying that this incident happened on September the 9th of this year. This actual incident happened on August 14th 2003.

More photos can be found here: http://flightlevel.20megsfree.com/

[lowlimit]

I wonder what that cell looked like on the radar?

:bored:

[Swedish Steve]

Reminds me of an Iraqui Airways B737-200 that diverted into BAH around 1979. It had taken off from DOH and the capt had seen a thick line on the radar. It was so straight he thought it was a defect with the radar. So they ignored it. All flt deck windscreens crazed and they autolanded at BAH with no fwd visibilty.
A team came down from Baghdad to fix it. They changed the four windscreens and replaved the engine nose domes (which had been bent sideways) and covered all the leading edges in thiokol and speed tape and flew it home. The maint team was led by a young Iraqui girl, which caused great surprise among the local engineers. She was ferocious and the aircraft was only in the GF hangar for two days.

[Leffy Gold]

I am surprised they were able to bring it home. I always knew that 100 mile/hour tape would fix everything!

[lowlimit]

Nice site. I will have to check it out when the guy updates it.

[321 Flyer]

I like the Alps photos that were just added.

[40KTSOFFOG]

Call me old fashioned but personally I find the photo of the worn elevator cable a little more disturbing.

[kendoll21]

what worn elevator cable????????????????????

[Right Way Up]

Was doing my command assessment out of ZRH that day. Some of the cells to the south of ZRH were pretty impressive!

[40KTSOFFOG]

Look a few photos before the hail damage and you'll see!

[VC10 Rib22]

40KTSOFFOG,

I'm glad somebody else thought so - I've seen a lot of cables, but nothing like that.....sent shivers down my spine.

VC10 Rib22

:eek:

[shuttlebus]

All,

There was a thread on this sometime ago

Search for "bmi hail"

Link below

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=136103&perpage=20&highlight=bmi%20hail&pagenumber=1

Regards,

Shuttlebus

[AllupWeight]

Frig, that hail did some serious damage.

[B2N2]

Saw the pics before on a different website.
Don't know if it's true but the story was a radar inop coming out of Italy running into storms over the Alps on the way back to London.

[Leffy Gold]

I have heard that as well.

[lowlimit]

I have gone through a lot of weather over the years, but never experienced anything like this bloke did!

Seems like they are lucky to walk away from this one.

[Superfly]

I wonder what that cell looked like on the radar?
:bored:

WX radar picks up water droplets, so hail is invisible to this equipment !
Scary :eek: !!

[Leffy Gold]

I imagine that would have been a surprise. Not seeing anything on the radar and then experiencing one heck of a ride.

[Best foot forward]

Superfly

From the Boing WX RADAR the wx radar does detect, rainfall, wet hail and wet turbulence, ice crystals dry hail and snow appear as small reflections.

[lowlimit]

I like the 185 on floats by the ice.

I imagine landing on ice is not an option. I have seen a Norseman on floats land on snow covered strip to change over to skis.

[seatofmypants]

I would have to question the pilots on that hail damaged aircraft! As far i know, flying into thunder storms is a big no no. Please correct me if i am wrong. I have seen many aircraft fly directly into cells which were very active at the time and have an ATC friend who see its regularly....mostly low cost airlines it has to be said. Who's is this aircraft....i rest my case! Having worked with low cost for a number of years, i am afraid their stance on safety is only made if there is money to make. They change theire attitudes to suit regularly, which is confusing for people working with them not to mention highly un-professional.

[Gary Lager]

seatofmyar5e - only your second post and making friends already!

It's a lot of effort but I personally feel that so many inaccurate generalisations and speculation requires wheeling out the old 'quote' button, I'm afraid:

As far i know, flying into thunder storms is a big no no
You are correct. However, how do we see where the thunderstorms are, when we're in cloud, or at night? Using weather radar, natch. Dry hail (as occurs at high altitudes), as has been mentioned before on this thread, is often not shown by radar. Hail can fall underneath the 'anvil' of a well developed storm and whilst one may be avoiding the 'painted' areas of high density water droplets, can still encounter hail.

I have seen many aircraft fly directly into cells which were very active at the time and have an ATC friend who see its regularly...
You say on a previous thread that you are an engineer, so what is your experience of seeing aircraft fly into 'thunderstorms' (Hail can be produced by CB and TCU clouds which are not yet 'thunderstorms' so I hesitate to use vague language)? From the ground? We are in no practical position to judge the severity of a storm unless looking at a weather radar or can observe the shape and extent of the cloudmass concerned. In any case, the complications caused by TS can quite different at altitude than on departure/arrival.

mostly low cost airlines it has to be said
Low cost like:

Excel
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0911365/M/

Air Transat
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0905161/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0186981/M/

British Airways
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0759758/M/

Aeroflot
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0470974/M/

Delta
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0439575/M/

SAS
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0293544/M/

...or could it be that every now again, correct precautions taken or not, aircraft encounter hail of a severity enough to cause damage, without predjudice to the business model of the airline.

Having worked with low cost for a number of years, i am afraid their stance on safety is only made if there is money to make
I am sure that many of us are eager to learn which airline - if you are worried about libel, you needn't be, since I'm sure that with your real interest in flight safety you would have reported such cases to the relevant civil aviation authority at the time, so the information ought to be in the public domain.

Many of us here work for what you would term 'low-cost' airlines, and have experienced nothing but the highest regard for flight safety and a progressive and open safety culture. It could be said that airlines with smaller fleets and less cash in the bank can least afford any kind of accident, if indeed anyone can.

Accidents and incidents happen, and mistakes are made and lessons learnt, and your interest and motivation to pursue what you perceive to be deficiencies in flight safety is admirable and to be applauded.

But the evolution of such progress will not be achieved by producing such grossly inaccurate and un-informed generalisations, which serve only to annoy those of us who should be co-operating with you in such endeavours.