On 26th October, a LATAM Airbus A320 suffered substantial damage to its windshield, engine and radome after flying through a hail storm. Due to the heavy turbulence, almost the entire nose radome had broken away.
The Airbus A320-200 with registration CC-BAZ performing flight LA1325 from Santiago in Chile to Asuncion, Paraguay with 48 people on board.
However, after encountering heavy storm the crew decided to divert to Foz de Iguacu for a safe landing about 40 minutes after the go-around. The aircraft was on approach to Asuncion’s runway 20 when the crew initiated a go-around from about 2400 feet MSL due to weather, as reported by the Aviation Herald.
After remaining on the ground for slightly more than 3 hours in Foz de Iguacu, the aircraft departed to Asuncion again. However, this time as well, the aircraft apparently got caught by a severe storm, where the damages happened but continued for a safe landing about 5 hours after the go around.
The airline confirmed the incident and reported that the aircraft encountered severe weather on its flight path and performed an emergency landing in Asuncion.
Even though the aircraft sustained substantial damage, passengers and crew disembarked in good condition.
Feature Image via Twitter
Amazing job by the flight crew. How could they see anything through that windshield, especially at night?
The radomes are predominantly made of fibre glass, and not designed to be impact resistant, nevertheless the sheer destruction of it indicates the severity of the storm.
In answer to Martin: Thunderstorm cells can often go higher than the aircraft’s maximum ceiling.
Best practice is to avoid them completely.
i dont understand, why didnt the plane fly above the weather?