Aircraft in a hailstorm

“Then the pilot is just a guest in his own cockpit”

(Bild: Leserreporter/zVg)

"For a short time, the pilot was just a guest in his own cockpit", an aviation expert is certain when looking at the AUA plane that was literally shot up by the hail. Despite massive visibility restrictions, the plane was brought safely to the ground on Sunday afternoon. But how can it be that the cockpit crew was unable to avoid the storm in time?

"The aircraft got caught in a thunderstorm cell on its approach to Vienna, which the cockpit crew said was not visible to them on the weather radar," reads the official statement from Austrian Airlines about the frightening incident on Sunday afternoon.

(Bild: Leserreporter/zVg)

(Bild: Leserreporter/zVg)

(Bild: Leserreporter/zVg)

According to Ubimet, however, the storm had already been clearly visible to meteorologists half an hour beforehand. "We therefore also asked ourselves why it was not visible to the AUA crew," says meteorologist Christoph Matella.

Aviation expert Thomas Friesacher tries to provide an answer to the most frequently asked question in this case: "The weather radar in the aircraft mainly shows moisture. However, this type of hail is very cold and therefore very dry. The hailstones are then literally hurled out of the clouds for kilometers. You can't see that on the radar." 

The hail is very cold and dry. That's probably why it wasn't visible on the radar.

Flugunfallsachverständiger Thomas Friesacher

Bild: Aeroxpert

"Immense noise in the cockpit"
The fact is, the team on the AUA plane brought the aircraft and all its passengers safely to the ground - not least thanks to the highly developed technology: "In 97 percent of all cases, a plane like this flies on autopilot. If the aircraft then encounters such a severe storm, the cockpit crew is hit by an immense amount of noise. You then have to filter out what exactly has happened. The next step is to reduce the speed and do everything possible to keep the autopilot in operation," says Friesacher, who was an AUA captain himself for decades.

"When technology fails, people have to take over"
In the current case, the pilot was able to carry out an automatic landing with a high degree of probability. "But if the technology fails, the human must be able to take over. The pilots are also intensively trained for this. The safety standards at AUA are also extremely high," says the aviation accident expert.

(Bild: zVg)

According to Friesacher, it is basically unavoidable to get into such situations. Climate change in particular favors such extreme weather conditions. "You just have to get through it. But then you are only a guest in the cockpit of environmental factors for a short time," says the expert.

Incident being investigated by AUA
AUA announced on Monday that the incident is being investigated as usual. According to spokeswoman Anita Kiefer, it is not yet possible to estimate the extent of the damage and how long the aircraft will be out of service. 

As is usual in such incidents, an investigation has been launched into why yesterday's flight OS434 flew through an area with hail. The incident lasted only a few seconds.

Austrian Airlines

Checking the aircraft systems and monitoring the current and predicted weather situation along the entire route are the main tasks of the cockpit crews during the flight, which are carried out "with great conscientiousness", it was emphasized.