The passengers of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A320 got the fright of their lives on Friday on their way from Boston to Salt Lake City when the pilots of the airliner flew into a storm with extreme hail but subsequently managed to make an improvised emergency landing in Denver.
The airplane suffered major structural damage as a result of a severe hailstorm, the Daily Mail reported. The impact from the pounding hail stones, which were reported as baseball-sized, shattered the nose cone and windshield of the airliner.
Even though they couldn’t see through the hail-damaged windshield, the pilots were able to land the jet safely in Denver by making use of airplane’s auto-land feature, along with some life-saving guidance from the control tower, the report said.
One passenger of the A320, which generally carries about 150 people, was taken to the hospital with injuries suffered from severe turbulence that accompanied the hailstorm. The remaining passengers were offered to continue the trip to Salt Lake City on a replacement airplane. However, some were so shaken from the incident that they opted to rent a car, CNN reported.
See the reaction from some of the airplane’s passengers here.
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