Did Anyone See the Hail Damage to that Delta Plane?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

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Luckily the emergency landing was successful thanks to the pilot and others involved.

 

I saw that and make two observations. Must have bee large hail and it almost caved in that radar dome which houses electronics.
 
The FAA is investigating, so I will withhold my comments and wait until the final determination is made.
 

WhatInThe said:
Wouldn't a storm front like that show up on ground or plane radar? Seems like there is less damage from a sharknado......

Should add that sadly while a jet liner with many passengers escaped catastrophe a small plane and people did not. Four killed. No distress call at all.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dead-small-plane-crash-nys-adirondack-mountains-32963180
Click to expand...

There have been a few planes brought down by hail in the past. The one accident that I remember the most was the Southern Airways flight that came down in Georgia. The hail was pretty large, like the size of baseballs. Both engines flamed out and the Captain attempted to land on the highway.

After the airlines put Doppler Radar, along with color imaging on-board, pilots were able to view where and the intensity of the storms were in their flight path. I am reluctant to make a call on how much the Captain had responsibility with flying into this storm. I know when I would fly and saw red and sometimes yellow on my radar screen, I normally looked for a way around the storm. Even if I was going to be late to the destination's gate, I always felt that was fair compensation for arriving safely.

The ATC's also have access to colored and Doppler Radar and usually alert the pilots that bad weather is in their vicinity. Pilots also keep the ATC's briefed on bad weather and turbulence, if they encounter it where they are while flying. Even if we had blue skies, we could have some pretty bad turbulence at certain altitudes. Normally, I would radio the ATC who's area I was in and alert them by just stating, "DFW Center, United 3-4-1. We are experiencing heavy turbulence at 3-7-thousand. Is there any smooth air above or below us?" And then they may respond with, "United 3-4-1, descend and maintain 3-4-thousand." And then we would repeat their instructions back to them.
 
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It would seem that with all the advances in weather radar, and the onboard technology in modern airliners, spotting a violent storm in the path of an airliner should be far more accurate than it used to be. I think the vast majority of passengers would rather arrive a few minutes late, due to the pilot having to skirt around a bad storm, than to take a chance on Not arriving at all.
 
Here is a picture of an open nose section of a Boeing 757 showing its Doppler Radar. The second picture shows the colored radar as seen by the pilots on-board. When I studied aviation both in college and at flight school, as part of the curriculum were classes on weather. It is very important for pilots to know and understand what cloud formations are considered dangerous. Being able to read the on-board colored radar screen is a must for all pilots. I don't want to accuse the pilot of this Delta flight of knowingly and intentionally flying into a severe storm without seeing the FAA'a determination. The storm may have developed very quickly and after he (the pilot) was already inside the cell that was yet unformed, which has happened.

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