Icing of Aircraft Engines in Ice Crystal Clouds: A Case Study

N. P. Shakina, I. A. Gorlach, E. N. Skriptunova, and N. I. Komas'ko

Analyzed is a serious flight accident with a Boeing-747 aircraft happened on July 31, 2013 during its flight from Moscow to Hong Kong. The plane entered the upper crystal part of the mesoscale convective complex (MCC) and got damaged the compressors of three engines. This is considered to be caused by the so called ice crystal icing in the areas with high concentration of ice crystals. Considered are meteorological conditions in the corresponding part of the flight route and available information about this type of icing. To prevent aircrafts from ice crystal icing, special attention should be paid to very short-range forecasting, nowcasting, and detection of zones of deep intense convection, especially of MCC along the flight route.