Hail the hero pilot

A BRAVE pilot landed this plane blind after hailstones shattered the windscreen, damaged the nose and blew out the autopilot.

All 121 passengers and the crew escaped unhurt after the emergency landing at Ataturk Airport, Istanbul.

The Airbus A320 had been hit by hail as “big as hens’ eggs” at 4,000 feet. In footage of the terrifying landing, passengers can be heard crying and praying and a voice on the ground saying, “He won’t do it, he won’t do it” as the plane lands.

Captain Alexander Akopov, of Turkish airline AtlasGlobal, has been given the Order For Courage by the Ukraine, his home country.

He said: “It was hard, but the main thing is that people are alive.”