Delta jet makes emergency landing in New York as wings damaged

Packed Delta jet heading to New York makes emergency landing after wings are damaged and front nose cone punched through by freak hailstorm moments after take-off in Italy

• The Boeing 767 was bound for JFK in New York when it hit a freak hailstorm 

A packed jet was forced to make an emergency landing after being severely damaged during a hailstorm as freak weather hit northern Italy.

Flight DL185 had just taken off from Milan’s Malpensa airport and was bound for JFK in New York when it flew into the storm.

Tracking data shows the Boeing 767 taking off, and then circling Milan before turning south and heading to Rome where it landed safely.

Pictures taken of the plane show the front nose cone punched through, while other images show holes in the wing and engine.

At the time of the incident early on Monday afternoon, a violent thunderstorm was passing through the north of Italy which left much of the region devastated with flash flooding and hailstones the size of tennis balls.

Image shows the extent of damage to the nose cone after Flight DL185 flew through a storm

Storms come as weather worsens in Italy, with regions in the south touching the upper 40C. Pictured: damage to the wing of DL185

In a statement Delta said:’ The Milan Malpensa to JFK flight was diverted to Rome after it encountered adverse weather after take off.

‘The landing in Rome happened safely without incident and the passengers disembarked normally.

‘The aircraft was damaged because of the weather and is now being examined by maintenance staff.’

Passenger Jeffrey Saunders posted on Twitter:’Flight 185 pummelled by hail on take-off. Makes emergency landing Rome. Scary incident.’

Elsewhere in Brianza near Milan, a 58-year-old woman was killed after a car she was travelling in wa shit by a tree brought down in high winds as storm blew through.

Another driver had to be rescued from a flooded underpass, while hailstorms in Desio left streets looking like a Christmas card scene as they were covered in white hailstones.

One weather expert said:’These hailstones can reach weights of 200g and hit speeds of 150kph which will have a devastating impact on anything it hits.’

The storms come amid a north-south divide in Italy where temperatures in the cities of Rome, Naples and on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily touched the upper 40c.

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