Flight Crew Scrambles for Help at 18,000. A Look at These Photos Will Tell You Why.

A Brazilian jet was forced to make an emergency landing, recently, and one look at the pictures and you'll see why.

Brazilian TAM Airlines flight JJ 3307 from Rio de Janeiro to Natal reverse course as it was still taking off February 9 after lightning disabled the part of the plane that enables flight crews to receive weather information.

As the aircraft reached approximately 18,000 feet, it began to reverse course to make an emergency landing back in Rio de Janeiro. But just before the pilots made the turn a major hail strike pounded the front of the plane, resulting in heavy damage to the nose.

TAM Airlines said the next day that it would conduct an internal investigation into what happened, but insisted the crew onboard adopted all the necessary safety protocols, local media reported.

The plane landed at Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro just one hour after it took off. No one was injured during the flight or emergency landing.

The extreme damage to the aircraft is evident from one Twitter user's photos of the front of the plane. User @Vargasmoni tweeted February 10, "Hail and turbulence caused severe damage to the radome of this A321 #TAM yesterday!!Emergency ldg! Via tráfico aéreo.

The front windscreen and the front windows were also heavily damaged, as seen in one of the photos.

Hail and turbulence caused severe damage to the radome of this A321 #TAM yesterday!!Emergency ldg! Via tráfico aéreo pic.twitter.com/VcQbsmKqnC

— ✈Monica-✈ (@vargasmoni) February 10, 2015

(H/T: Jalopnik)

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Front page image via Shutterstock