An Austrian Airlines flight made a Mayday call as the front of the aircraft was battered by hail in a flight over Europe on Sunday. The Airbus A320 was flying from Mallorca to Austria when it hit a “thunderstorm cell,” the airline told ABC News, with the hail causing substantial damage to the aircraft’s nose and cockpit windows. Emmeley Oakley, a passenger on the flight, told the the network that several people screamed during the incident, which began with turbulence about 20 minutes before landing. “We could definitely feel the hail coming down on the plane and it was quite loud and ofc super rocky for a minute,” Oakley said. The airline said the severe patch of weather was not visible on the radar to cockpit crew and that the Mayday call was issued because of the damage. It added that the plane was able to make a safe landing at Vienna-Schwechat Airport with no passengers hurt. “It wasn’t until we exited that we saw the nose was missing!” Oakley said.
