“For a short time, the pilot was just a guest in his own cockpit,” said an aviation expert as he watched the AUA plane literally being destroyed by the hail. Despite enormous visibility restrictions, the plane was safely landed on Sunday afternoon. But how is it possible that the flight crew could not avoid the storm in time?
“While approaching Vienna, the aircraft encountered a thunderstorm cell that, according to the flight crew, was not visible on the weather radar,” read Austrian Airlines’ official statement on the terrifying incident on Sunday afternoon.
According to Ubimet, the storm was already clearly visible to meteorologists half an hour in advance. “We therefore wondered why the AUA crew could not see it,” says meteorologist Christoph Matella.
Aviation expert Thomas Friesacher tries to answer the most frequently asked question in this case: “The weather radar in the plane mainly shows the humidity. However, this type of hail is very cold and therefore very dry. The hailstones are then literally thrown from the clouds for miles. You don’t see that on the radar.”
“Immense noise development in the cockpit”
The fact is that the AUA aircraft team landed the plane and all its passengers safely – not least thanks to the highly developed technology: “In 97 percent of all cases, such an aircraft flies on autopilot. When the aircraft encounters such a violent storm, the flight crew is initially exposed to an enormous amount of noise. You then have to filter out what exactly happened. The next step is to reduce the speed and try everything to ensure that the autopilot continues to work,” says Friesacher, who himself was a captain in the AUA for decades.
“When technology fails, people must take over”
In the present case, the pilot was most likely able to perform an automatic landing. “But if the technology fails, people should be able to take over. The pilots are also intensively trained for this. The safety standards at the AUA are really extremely high,” says the aircraft accident expert.
According to Friesacher, it is in principle inevitable to end up in such situations. Climate change in particular would contribute to such extreme weather events. “You just have to get through it. But then for a short time you are simply a guest in the cockpit of the environmental factors,” says the expert.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
