The Incredible Act of Nature That Caused an Airplane to End Up Looking Like This

Andrea Ripoll said the majority of the 12-hour AirEuropa flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires earlier this week was "flawless." The last 20 minutes of the trip, however, changed all that.

"Suddenly, I swear it was like being up a [roller] coaster," Ripoll told Infobae (via an unofficial translation) of his experience on flight UX-41 on Monday.

At one point, the plane flew into a storm cloud with hail and lightning. In this cloud, the plane sustained damage to its nose and windshield, but the pilot was able to land safely.

Ricardo Cirielli, secretary general of the Association of Personal Aircraft Technicians, tweeted pictures of the damage to the plane once it was safely on the ground.

Así quedo un A330 de Air Europa,se metió a 25mil pies en la tormenta,el granizo dejo parabrisas y la nariz destruidos pic.twitter.com/q83bIO386g

— Ricardo Cirielli (@ricardocirielli) September 9, 2014

The turbulence became so strong that Ripoll said half of the 230 passengers on board, including a flight attendant, got sick.

"When we landed we [applauded] the pilot but people had a tremendous desperation to get off the plane. Everyone agreed they had never had such a landing," Ripoll said, according to Infobae.

AeroInside reported that the return flight was cancelled due until the plane could be repaired.

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Front page image via @ricardocirielli.