Air Transport

Asiana crew struggles to land A321 after hail encounter

The crew of an Asiana Airlines Airbus A321 managed to land safely after the aircraft was damaged flying through a hailstorm on 9 June. Hailstones that the South Korean airline says “looked 5cm [2in] wide” ripped off the nose cone, caused a 20cm-wide hole in one of the engine cowlings and cracked the windshield.

The twinjet landed at Seoul’s Gimpo airport at the end of a scheduled flight from Jeju island.

The airline says the crew were unable to execute an automatic landing, but brought the aircraft down manually after two attempts despite their restricted vision due to the windshield damage. None of the 194 passengers or six crew was injured.