Are you planning to get on a plane at some point in the next forever? Do not watch this. Turn away. Do literally anything else.
A Ukrainian pilot is being hailed as a hero after he successfully landed a plane that had been damaged so badly by hailstones that the vessel’s nosecone was practically sheared off.
Captain Alexander Akopov successfully guided the Airbus A320 back down to the ground at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after a freak thunderstorm smashed the aircraft with huge hailstones.
The hail not only severely damaged the plane’s nosecone, but it shattered all cockpit windows, meaning Akopov had to land the plane virtually “blind.”
The hail, with some stones reportedly as big as hen’s eggs, hit the Turkey-based airline Atlasglobal flight – which was headed to the northern Cyprus centre of Erkan – around 10 minutes after take-off. The plane had climbed to around 1,300 metres altitude before the storm hit it. The damage of the hailstones was so severe that it even managed to knock out the plane’s autopilot.
But Akopov, the absolute lad, still managed to safely put the plane down without a single injury to any of the 127 passengers on board.
Un. Bloody. Real.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Akopov to personally congratulate him on his bravery and award him the Ukrainian Order of Courage.
But if you think Akopov – the steel testicle’d badass himself – would let any of this go to his head for even a second, you’d be savagely wrong. Old mate, you see, is not here for the kudos. He’s simply here to get the damned job done.
I have been flying for 30 years.
Well, did you see the plane landing? Was it okay? The passengers are alive. It is normal. This is our professional reliability.
Our locator did not show this weather disaster, this is why it happened. It was hard, but the main thing is that people are alive.
Eat your goddamned heart out, Sully. Where’s *this* legend’s moving-if-not-slightly-overcooked biopic starring Tom Hanks?
