Hail Strikes the Airplane

The plane had been taken to air from northern Cyprus and was developing a routine flight when over Turkey, it was found amid a fierce storm and a giant hail. Smacking the size of a golf ball and heavy rainfall hit Istanbul the day before, as part of a violent storm that flooded roads, fell trees and paralysed air traffic and road in Turkey's largest city.

So great was its power that it knocked down a piece of the stone wall surrounding the cemetery of the Armenian Christian community, wounding two people, reports the daily “Daily Sababahx1>. State news agency “Anadolu”, on the other hand, says strong winds knocked down a crane in the port area, which fell on a group of oil barrels causing a small explosion of a fire, while a warehouse was on fire after the lightning struck.

This was the second time within 10 days that heavy rainfall becomes a trigger for the flooding of Istanbul's roads and sow chaos in the city.