A massive hailstorm hit Kunming Changshui International Airport, southwestern China’s busiest hub, on Saturday morning, grounding flights, damaging aircraft and stranding passengers. Hailstones as big as fists lashed runways, terminal roofs and more than 110 parked planes. Yunnan Airport Group described it as ‘unusually severe convective weather’.
Kunming Changshui International Airport was mopping up and struggling to resume operations on Sunday after the massive hailstorm grounded flights, damaged aircraft and stranded passengers.
The storm lashed runways, terminal roofs and some of the more than 110 aircraft at the facility on Saturday morning, with water seeping into terminal concourses and air bridges. “The airport was hit by unusually severe convective weather with intensive bursts of thunderstorms and hail. Parked aircraft were affected by hail strikes,” Yunnan Airport Group, the airport’s operator, said in a notice.
Some jets sustained visible damage to their wings, cockpits and radomes and had been taken out of service pending repairs, according to mainland Chinese media reports.
No injuries have been reported so far, though passengers were stranded during the disruption.
