A British Airways jet flying from Gatwick to Costa Rica suffered a cracked windscreen after it was hit by a block of ice that fell from a plane that was flying 1,000 feet above the jet.
The Boeing 777 with some 200 passengers was flying to San Jose in Costa Rica on Christmas Day when the mishap took place.
The block of ice that fell from another plane that was flying 1,00 feet above the BA jet, caused misfortune for the passengers who were unable to get home for Christmas.
The incident, described as ‘one-in-a-million’, cracked up the two-inch-thick windscreen, which has a similar build to the bulletproof glass to withstand extreme force.
Despite the mid-air scare, the pilots managed to fly safely to San Jose, where all the repairs were done. The passengers were initially informed of a 90-minute delay, but the flight was rescheduled only after 50 hours after their original scheduled time. According to the Daily Mail, the flight left at 8.35 pm on Christmas Day and arrived in London shortly after noon on Boxing Day.
Jo Mitchell, a passenger, told The Independent, "We were told when it was our turn to check-in by the San Jose desk staff that the plane had a broken windshield and it would be too dangerous to fly it back.”
Mitchell and Geir Olafsson had been on honeymoon in Costa Rica and were hoping to return to Edinburgh in time for Christmas via Gatwick. Mitchell said they were devastated when they realized they wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with both their families.
The British Airways spokesperson said that they would like to send a heartfelt apology to the passengers who had their Christmas plans ruined.
The official also said, "We will never fly an aircraft unless we feel it is completely safe to do so, and on this occasion, our engineers were unable to clear it to fly. Since then, our teams have been working behind the scenes to do all they can to ensure an aircraft is ready at the earliest opportunity to bring customers to London.”
In November, Malta Air Boeing 737-800, flying from London to Bologna was hit by a flock of birds before landing, leaving the windscreen covered in bird carcasses.
British Airways has offered to pay a compensation of GBP 520 per person for the delay caused and a full refund to all the affected passengers.
