Hail-battered jet returns to O'Hare

Wow, they couldn't have worked much harder at hittin' the kneecaps of the worst cell in the immediate queue. ATC? either complicit with vectors to the noise, (hail), or complicit in the lack of warning that they were headed right for it. The crew? either slept through modern airborne weather radar school, or are members of the "don't be late, penetrate", crowd. In the bidness, events like this are not supposed to be serendipity.

At any rate, thank goodness and PPG engineers for that squishy middle layer of a modern laminate windscreen that keeps the 'blunt force trauma' from takin' out the last (inner) layer, most of the time. I'm waitin' for the photos of the metal damage that usually accompany the photo of when you do that to a pair of modern day windscreens.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL349/history/20201012/1903Z/KORD/KORD