A British Airways plane was left with a broken windscreen after hitting a large block of ice. The crash occurred as the plane was flying from London Gatwick to San Jose in Costa Rica several hours after the incident.
A British Airways plane carrying 200 passengers escaped fearfully in the middle of the air after hitting a block of ice, shattering the windscreen.
The two-inch-thick windscreen of a Boeing 777 was completely shattered by a block of ice that reportedly fell from another plane flying 1000 feet above them.
The crash occurred when the plane was cruising at 35,000 feet on Christmas Day while traveling from Gatwick in London to San Jose in Costa Rica.
Plane windscreens are similar to bulletproof glass, which means they can withstand extreme forces at high altitudes. But this was not the case in what has been described as ‘one in a million’.
Despite the mid-air crash, all 200 passengers were safe, but remained stranded at an airport for several hours after their plane’s emergency landing.
As the damaged aircraft could not take off immediately, the flight was rescheduled 50 hours after the passengers’ original scheduled time.
The delay promised by the flight was initially 90 minutes. But due to the repair of the aircraft, the delay became too long.
Following the incident, British Airways issued an apology to passengers whose Christmas Day plans were ruined.
“We extend our heartfelt apologies to the customers of this flight whose Christmas plans have been ruined. A British Airways spokesperson said, “We will not fly the aircraft until we feel it is completely safe to do so, and on occasion, our engineers were unable to fly it.”
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers and our engineers and crew colleagues who have done everything possible to assist”.
A few weeks ago, a Boeing 737-800 collided with a huge flock of birds just before landing.
A spark emanated from the engine as the two pilots somehow managed to land the plane in Italy. The entire windscreen was covered with carcasses of birds.
The aircraft, a Malta Air Boeing 737-800, was flying between London and Bologna on 24 November