A321 hail damage and emergency landing, wow...

teacher · Post by **teacher** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:01 pm

That would have sucked. Glad to see all ended well.

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/20 ... unter.html

grimey · Post by **grimey** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:49 pm

"None of the 194 passengers or six crew was injured."

That's kind of suprising, you'd think there'd be some nasty turbulence associated with the hail. Good job by the pilots, though.

Schlem · Post by **Schlem** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:13 pm

Good job flying through a hail storm? Hail is associated with CB's so what were they doing that close and or in a CB in the first place?

Wx radar not working?

grimey · Post by **grimey** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:06 am

I was talking about actually getting it on the ground after the damage was done. The article doesn't go into why or how they got into the hail.

CAL · Post by **CAL** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:04 am

ya I think the WX Radar went with the nose....seems kinda odd the entire nose section coming off that clean.....

squawk 7600 · Post by **squawk 7600** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:33 pm

doesn't it seem king of strange that there were only 6 crew members for close to 200 pax? Shouldn't there have been more than 4 flight attendants on board? Do they not follow ICAO rules, or does each country have it's own set of rules governing minimum flight crew?

ca787546 · Post by **ca787546** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:06 pm

Last time I checked, 4 FA would be fine for 199 passengers, isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the minimum is 1 per 50?
I also do know that each country can have their own regulations, but if for example, there's a conflict in regulations, between an aircraft registered in country X flying over country Y, if country Y has more restrictive regs, then the Y regs should be followed, and if the X regs are more restrictive, then X regs should be followed. I other words, follow both countries' regs and in case of conflict, go with the most restrictive one.
Cheers,
DNB

Kurwa · Post by **Kurwa** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:46 pm

1 F/A for 50 pax is correct for most countries. But, isn't 194 pax in a 321 a bit tight in the first place?

BusDriver · Post by **BusDriver** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:20 pm

Schlew, Why jump all over the flightcrew? Wx. Radar is a very poor tool to detect hail! Most of the time it can't be detected. A Transat L-1011 encountered a hail laden CB a few years ago leaving southern France which rendered the aircraft scrap in Lyons. Check out some pic's on airliners.net if you want. The flightcrew reported no Wx. abnormalities and nothing was detected on radar. My 2 cents.

Big Pratt · Post by **Big Pratt** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:32 pm

Is wx radar data recorded by the newer FDR's?

BTW, Kurwa, cute nick

TFE731 · Post by **TFE731** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:12 pm

Schlem wrote:Good job flying through a hail storm? Hail is associated with CB's so what were they doing that close and or in a CB in the first place?

Wx radar not working?

I was pretty sure that hail could be found more than 150nm from an actual CB that produces the signature 'anvil' top.

cedar tree · Post by **cedar tree** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:14 pm

TFE731 wrote:
Schlem wrote:Good job flying through a hail storm? Hail is associated with CB's so what were they doing that close and or in a CB in the first place?

Wx radar not working?
I was pretty sure that hail could be found more than 150nm from an actual CB that produces the signature 'anvil' top.

Thank you TFE731, I hate critics.

Four1oh · Post by **Four1oh** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:38 pm

I wish they had shown what the leading edge of the wings looked like. Probably like someone took a sledge hammer to it I'd bet.

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:48 am

hail could be found more than 150nm from an actual CB

Dunno about 150nm but ... it pays to know what the upper (ie tropopause) winds are doing (ie look at the anvil).

It is possible (but not common) for hail to shoot out the TOP of a CB, and be carried downwind many miles by a very strong tropopause wind.

It ain't gonna go far upwind, though.

TFE731 · Post by **TFE731** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:17 pm

Hedley wrote:
hail could be found more than 150nm from an actual CB
Dunno about 150nm but ... it pays to know what the upper (ie tropopause) winds are doing (ie look at the anvil).

It is possible (but not common) for hail to shoot out the TOP of a CB, and be carried downwind many miles by a very strong tropopause wind.

It ain't gonna go far upwind, though.

Quoted from The National Center for Atmospheric Research:

"Viewed from the air, we can see that hail falls along paths known as hail swaths. These can be quite small -- a hectare or so (a few acres) in area -- or quite large, 16 kilometres (10 miles) wide by 160 kilometres (100 miles) long....."

Just sharing information.