Passengers aboard a harrowing transatlantic flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires might be kissing the ground this week. On September 9th, an AirEuropa Airbus A330 flying into Argentina’s Ezeiza Airport encountered a serious hailstorm in the last 20 minutes of a 12-hour flight, theblaze.com reports.

"Ahead of a strong cold front front, a band of thunderstorms erupted across extreme northeast Argentina, Uruguay, and the adjacent South Atlantic waters up to about 100 miles east-southeast of Buenos Aires on the morning of September 9," said weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman."With a flight path from Madrid, Spain, there appeared to be no option to avoid those thunderstorms."

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Heavy hail cracked the plane’s windshield and severely damaged the aircraft’s nose, according to the Aviation Herald. Io9.com reports that the incredible turbulence made many of the 230 passengers and at least one flight attendant onboard sick.

“Suddenly, I swear it was like being up a [roller] coaster,” passenger Andrea Ripoll told Spanish news site Infobae of the flight, which, up until that point, had been uneventful.

The pilot managed to keep the plane in the air for another 11 minutes before landing safely, according to the Aviation Herald.

Once the plane was on the ground, Ricardo Cirielli, secretary general of the Association of Personal Aircraft Technicians, tweeted pictures of the damage.

“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.

The aircraft’s return flight was canceled due to the damage.

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